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oi  *^  ®'«"%^«f  Sen,:, 

O  PRINCETON,    N.    J.  '^^ 


BV  600  .M67  1885   c.l 
Morris,  Edward  D.  1825-1915 
Ecclesiology 


SAel/.. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  IN  OUTLINE 

ECCLESIOLOGY 

A   TREATISE   ON 

the  chueoh  a^d  kingdom  of  god 
oint  earth 


EDWARD   d/mORRIS,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY  IN  LANE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


EiS  fxiav,  dyiav,  Ka^oX-LHrjv  xai  ditodToXixrjv  EHH\rj6iav. 

— Symbolum  Nicaeno  Const. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1885 


Copyright,  1885, 

BY 

Edward  D,  Morris. 


ELECTROTYPED   AT 
THE   FRANKLIN   TYPE   FOUNDRY, 

CINCINNATI. 


PKEFATOPvY, 


The  following  pages  contain  a  condensed  summary  of  a  series  of 
Lectures  delivered  during  the  past  seventeen  years  to  the  students  of 
this  Institution,  in  this  department  of  Christian  Doctrine.  In  the 
effort  to  prepare  a  succinct  treatise,  available  for  practical  uses,  rather 
than  an  elaborate  dissertation,  it  has  been  deemed  desirable  to  omit 
all  extended  discussion  of  controverted  points,  and  simply  to  incor- 
porate, with  the  briefest  statement  of  grounds  and  reasons,  such  con- 
clusions as  have  justified  themselves  to  the  author  after  careful  inves- 
tigation. INIinor  divisions  and  notations,  employed  in  the  class-room, 
have  for  the  most  part  been  omitted  ;  only  such  authorities  as  are 
easily  accessible,  are  mentioned  by  way  of  reference. 

Prepared  originally  for  the  benefit  of  theological  students,  this  brief 
volume — the  fruit  of  many  happy  studies  in  this  interesting  field — is 
now,  with  some  hesitation,  sent  forth  from  its  seclusion  here,  in  the 
hope  that  it  may  prove  useful  in  wider  circles.  The  fact  that  there 
is  in  present  circulation,  hardly  any  work  of  the  same  class,  and  cov- 
ering the  same  ground,  seems  in  part  at  least  to  justify  such  hope. 
And  if  the  perusal  of  this  treatise  should  help  any  single  mind  into 
clearer,  broader,  more  ireuic  conceptions  of  the  Church,  or  should 
contribute  in  the  slightest  measure  toward  the  harmonizing  of  opinion 
and  action  among  Christian  men  around  this  one  divine  Institution  on 
whose  growth  and  efficiency  the  interests  of  spiritual  Christianity,  the 
world  over,  seem  now  so  vitally  dependent,  that  hope  will  have  gained 
its  largest  realization. 

E.  D.  M. 
Lane  Theological  Seminary  : 
January,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 


5-13 


I.  Ecc;ij:.siology:  The  Term  Defined, 

II.  Relation  to  other  Divisions  of  Do(;trine, 

III.  Biblical  Basis  of  the  Doctrine, 

IV.  Sketch  of  Opinions  in  Ecclesiolooy, 

V.  Importance  of  the  Proposed  Inquiry, 


7 

8 

9 

11 


CIIAPTEIi  FIRST. 


THE  CHURCH  ix  thh  divine  plan. 


the   idea,  the    IHSTOItY,    AND   TIIi:   .lUHTIFICATION.  13-41 

I.  Definition  OF  THE  Term,  Ciivrcai:  Various  Uses,    .        .        .    i;{ 

II.  Analysis  of  the  Term  : 

Association,  Piety,  (Joiistitiitioii,  ()l)jcct,  IV'rmuncnce,  .         .10 
HI.  Historic  Uxfoldinu  of  this  Conception,        .        .        .        .11) 

IV.  Thic  Church  Patriarchal:  First  Division,     .        .        .        .20 

V.  The  Church  Patriarchal;  Second  Division  : 

Tiu!  Al)riiliiiinic  Cliurcli, 22 

VI.  The  Chup.ch  Herrak;:  Preliminary  Remarks,       .        .        .23 

VII.  The  Church  ITefsraic:  Special  CiiARACTEKisTrcs : 

Doctrine,  L'lw,  Ritual,  Prieslliood,  Seal,         .         .         .  .24 
Vni.  The  Church  Hebraic:  Historic  Development: 

The  Theocratic,  the  Royal,  the  Prophetic  Eras,      .         .  .27 

IX.  The  Church  AS  Constituted  BY  Christ:  Preliminary,.  .     2!) 

X.  Its  Identity  with  Patriarch  a  r.  and  Hebraic  Churches: 

In  Foundation,  in  Conditions,  in  Aim  and  Destiny,       .         .     ?,] 

XI.  Important  Points  of  Contrast  Noted, 82 

XII.  General  Argument  For  The  Church  : G.*] 

1.  It  lies  constructively  in  the  Rclij.MouH  Nature,  .         .     .34 

2.  Required  by  Relij^ion  as  an  Experience,    ....     .30 

3.  Religion  perpetuated  and  advanced  throudi  the  Church,     -''H 

4.  The  Divine  Glory  manifested  tlirou  Ai  it,  ...     '■'>'■) 

(i) 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  SECOND. 
THE  IMPERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


ITS   DOCTRINES,  ITS   SACRAMENTS,  ITS   ORDINANCES.  41-79 

I.  Doctrines  Defined  :  Chubcii  Creeds  Described,        .        .        .42 

II.  Church  Creeds  :  Reasons  for  their  Existence,       .        .        .43 

III.  Objections  to  Creeds  :  Limitations  of  Creeds,       .        .        .44 

IV.  Sacraments  Defined  :  Number  of  Sacraments,     .        .        .40 

V.  Baptism  Defined  :  General  Scriptural  Warrant,        .        .    48 

VI.  Baptism  :  Its  Nature  and  Design, 50 

VII.  Baptism  :  Modes  of  Administration  : 

Further  Questions  as  to  U.sage, 52 

VIII.  Baptism  :  Subjects  or  Recipients,  .      ■  .        .        .        .        .56 

IX.  Scripture  Witness  to  Infant  Baptism, 59 

X.  The  Lord's  Supper  :  Warrant  and  Nature,     .        .        .        .    G2 
XL  The  Lord's  Supper  :  Design  and  Participants,        .        .        .65 

XII.  The  Lord's  Supper  :  Infuence  and  Worth  : 

Other  kindred  Observances, 67 

XIII.  Ordinances  Defined  :  Positive  Institutions,       .        .        .70 

XIV.  The  Sabbath— a  Sacred  Time  : 

1.  Its  triple  Institution, 71 

2.  Its  threefold  Design 72 

3.  Its  perpetual  Obligation, 73 

4.  The  Change  of  Day  justified, 74 

5.  Manner  and  Spirit  of  Observance, 74 

XV.  Three  Associated  Ordinances  : 

1.  The  Sanctuary— a  Sacred  Place, 75 

2.  The  Means  of  Grace— a  Sacred  Cultus,       .        .        .        .77 

3.  The  Ministry- a  Sacred  Service,  .        .        .        .78 


CHAPTER  THIRD. 
THE  PERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH : 

its   members,  its   OFFICERS.  80-111 


I.  The  Personal  Element  Supreme,  . 

IL  Church  Membership:  Preliminary  View, 

III.  Membership  in  the  Primitive  Church,     . 


80 
82 
83 


CONTENTS.  iii 

IV.  Gkeek  and  Papal  View  of  Membership, 85 

V.  Protestant  View  after  the  Reformation,      .        .        .        .87 

VI.  Current  Protestant  Opinion:  The  Formal  View,        .        .    89 

VII.  Current  Protestant  Opinion  :  The  Spiritual  View,  .        .    91 

VIII.  Membership  in  the  Particular  Church  : 

Four  specific  Conditions  requisite,  ......     94 

IX.  Membership  of  the  Children  of  Believers,    .        .        .        .96 

X.  The  Church  an  Organization  : 

Offices  and  Officers  requisite, 98 

XI.  Temporary  Church  Offices  : 

1.  The  Prophetical  Office 100 

2.  The  Apostolical  Office, 100 

3.  The  Evangelistic  Office, 102 

XII.  Permanent  Church  Offices  : 

1.  The  Office  of  Instruction, 104 

2.  The  Office  of  Government, 105 

3.  The  Office  of  Administration, 106 

XIII.  Officers  Requisite  in  the  Church  : 

Tiie  Ministry — call  and  functions,   ......  107 

XIV.  Church  Officers  :  Further  Questions  : 

Inyestiture,  Authority,  Limitations  in  Tenure,      .        .         .  110 


CHAPTER  FOURTH. 


THE  CHURCH  AS  A  DIVINE  KINGDOM: 


government,  polities,  discipline. 


112-151 


I.  The  Church  as  a  Structure  :  General  Conception, 

II.  Church  Government  Defined  AND  .Iustified,  . 

in.  Church  Government  IN  Scripture,   .... 

IV.  Varieties  in  Church  Government  :  Diverse  Polities, 

V.  The  Papal  Polity  :  Its  Position  and  Claim,     . 

VI.  The  Papal  Polity  Considered, 

VII.  The  Prelatic  Polity  •  l;rs  Claim  Outlined,   . 

VIII.  Prelatism  Examined, 

IX.  Independency:  Its  General  Position,     . 

X.  The  Claim  of  Independency  Reviewed,    . 

XI.  The  Representative  Polity  Stated  and  Justified  : 

1.  Derived  from  the  Jewish  synagogue  system. 


112 
114 
117 
118 
121 
124 
127 
129 
132 
135 
137 
139 


IV  CONTEXTS. 

2.  Developed  gradually  under  apostolic  guidance, ,         .         .  140 

;!.  Designed  to  secure  etlicieney  in  government      .         .         .141 

4.  Represented  eliureli  (cllowsliii)  and  unity, .         .         .         .   142 

.">.  J  uslilied  by  Scripture  and  ex])erience,        ....  143 

XII.  ("AllDIXAL  PillXCIPl.ES  IX  ADMIXISTRATIOX  : 

Headship  of  Christ :  Supremacy  of  Scripture,        .        .        .  143 

XIII.  Practical  Admixistratiox  : 

Authority  and  Obedience, 146 

XIV.  Discipline  as  a  Church  Function  : 

Warrant,  Aims,  Spirit,  Methods,  Extent,         ....  148 


CHAPTER  FIFTH. 
THE  CHURCH  IN  HUMAN  SOCIETY: 
its  unity,  its  (jkowtii,  its  relations. 

I.  Present  Church  Divisions  :  Forms  and  Causes,        .        .        .  151 

II.  Church  Divisions  :  Good  and  Evil  Fruits,       .        .        .        .154 

III.  Organic  Oneness:  The  Papal  View 156 

IV.  Spiritual  Unity  :  The  Protestant  View,        ....  158 

V.  The  Christian  Church  a  Growth  :  General  Conception,    .  160 

VI.  Internal  Law  of  Church  Growth  : 

Spiritual  Propagation, 162 

VII.  External  Law  of  Church  Growth: 

Spiritual  Conquest, 165 

VIIL  Illicit  Processes  of  Church  Growth, 167 

IX.  The  Church  in  Human  Society  :  General  View,  .        .        .169 

X.  The  Church  and  Human  Sin, 171 

XI.  The  Church  and  Human  Institutions  : 

Church  and  the  Family :  Church  and  State,  ....  174 

XII.  The  Church  and  Education  :  Church  and  Culture,  .        .  177 

XIII.  The  Church  and  Morality  :  Church  and  Reform,    .        .  1 81 

XIV.  The  Church  and  Civilization  : 

Consummation  of  Humanity  through  the  Church,        .        .  188 


ECCLESIOLOGY: 

THE  CHURCH  AND  KmGDO]M  OF  GOD  ON  EARTH. 


INTRODUCTION. 

I.  EccLESiOLOGY :  The  Term  Defined. — The  work  of  Salvation 
begins  with  the  individual  soul.  In  its  exterior  form,  it  is  a  redemp- 
tion of  the  sinner  from  the  judicial  grasp  of  divine  law,  and  from 
the  penal  issues  of  his  sin.  In  its  interior  substance,  it  is  a  spiritual 
deliverance  from  sin  itself,  and  a  restoration  of  the  sinner  to  holi- 
ness, and  to  everlasting  life.  This  personal  salvation,  wrought  out 
externally  through  the  redemptive  work  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  in- 
ternally through  the  regenerative  and  sanctifying  ministries  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  must  antedate  in  time  and  become  the  substantial  basis 
of  all  social  or  generic  changes  effected  among  mankind  through  the 
Gospel.  The  personal  result  is  always  and  of  necessity  primary.  The 
general  aim  and  methods  of  the  Gospel,  the  historic  labors  of  our 
Lord  for  individual  souls,  the  registered  activities  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  peculiar  type  of  character  developed  in  and  through  these  divine 
instrumentalities,  all  illustrate  this  great  antecedent  and  most  prac- 
tical truth:  Salvation  must  begin  with  the  individual  man. 

Yet  Christianity  is  also  social  and  generic  in  both  its  idea  and  its 
manifestation.  It  contemplates  man  in  the  aggregate ;  it  seeks  the  res- 
toration of  human  society:  its  gracious  purpose  can  be  consummated 
only  in  the  salvation  of  Humanity.  As  sin  has  passed  through  the 
individual  man  into  the  family,  corrupting  and  destroying  the  house- 
hold life,  the  salutary  power  of  the  Gospel  must  enter  into  the  family 
circle  to  transform  it  by  the  same  gracious  processes  through  which 
the  individual  is  both  justified  and  sanctified  before  God.  As  sin  has 
passed  in  like  manner  into  the  state,  this  divine  religion  must  also  enter 
into  the  political  life  of  man,  to  arrest  the  sway  of  evil,  purify  social 
principle  and  practice,  restore  true  civil  order,  and  in  a  word  rencAV 
the  state  as  well  as  the  family.  More  broadly  still,  as  sin  has  penetrated 
and  infected  our  humanity  in  the  aggregate,  working  everywhere  or- 
ganic as  well  as  particular  devastation,  Christianity  must  aim  at  noth- 
ing less  than  the  regenei'ation  of  that  humanity  in  every  aspect  and 

(5) 


b  ECCLESIOLOGY :    INTRODUCTION. 

every  relation, — the  restoration  on  tlie  earth  of  that  social  as  ^vell  as 
individual  Paradise  which  sin  has  Ixitli  forfeited  and  destroyed.  The 
failure  to  recognize  these  generic  aims  and  issues  of  Christianity, 
originating  in  a  false  or  defective  Anthropology,  leads  on  directly  to 
much  narrow  or  erroneous  teaching  resjjecting  the  sublime  ministry  of 
the  Christian  faith  in  the  world.  The  i)urely  individualistic  view  of 
salvation  is  one  against  which,  therefore,  the  devout  student  should  he 
ever  on  his  guard :  Our  Gospel  is  a  Gospel  for  humanity  as  well  as 
for  the  individual  man. 

In  this  comprehensive  social  work,  the  chief  agent  or  instrument 
em2)loyed  is  the  Church, — a  divine  organism  set  up  among  men  for 
the  purpose  of  affecting  humanity  savingly  through  the  Gospel,  and 
endoAved  with  all  the  capabilities  requisite  to  this  high  function.  Ke- 
garded  as  an  organism,  the  Church  receives  and  enjoys  the  same  gra- 
cious influences  which  produce  and  develop  the  Christian  life  in  the 
individual  soul.  It  is  established  by  Christ,  founded  on  His  AVord, 
sustained  by  His  Sj^tirit,  quickened  through  grace,  and  divinely  commis- 
sioned for  its  special  work.  Regarded  as  an  instrumentality,  the 
Church  is  vested  Avith  divine  efficiency  adequate  to  this  peculiar  mis- 
sion :  the  power  of  Christianity  to  penetrate  and  restore  human  society 
is  specially  embodied  in  it.  It  is  true  that  this  gracious  mission  is  en- 
trusted immediately  to  each  and  every  disciple, — in  virtue  of  his 
renewed  nature  each  believer  is  directly  sent  forth  by  Christ  to  do  his 
specific  part  in  the  restoration  of  our  lost  humanity  to  holiness  abd 
to  God.  It  is  true  that  God  also  utilizes  the  family  and  the  state,  in 
the  consummation  of  His  gracious  purpose ;  for  wdienever  salvation  en- 
ters a  family,  renewing  the  inmates  individually  through  His  Word 
and  Spirit,  He  not  only  raises  the  family  inwardly  into  a  new  life, 
but  transforms  it  at  once  into  a  new  regenerative  force  in  human  so- 
ciety,— as  truly  an  agent  in  the  spiritual  restoration  of  humanity, 
though  in  a  subordinate  sphere,  as  the  Church  itself.  So  when  the 
world  comes  somewhere  in  the  future  to  see  the  sublime  spectacle  of 
a  thoroughly  Christianized  state,  it  will  be  made  to  realize  as  we  can 
not  now  realize,  what  a  mighty  instrumentality  for  the  diffusion  and 
perpetuation  of  the  true  religion  such  a  state  may  be.  Yet  it  is  to 
the  Church,  as  at  once  the  family  of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  God 
among  men,  that  this  great  task  is  primarily  entrusted :  it  is  through 
the  Church  as  a  divine  organism  and  instrumentality  that  these  re- 
sults are  mainly  to  be  attained.  ^ 

'  "What  is  given  objectively  in  Christ,  is  to  be  appropriated  by  Ilumanitj'. ' 
But  Humanity  is  designed,  by  such  appropriation,  to  become  the  Cliurch,  oi 
Community  of  Faitli.     As  the  center  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  Cliurch  is  the 
final  aim  wliich  Christ  projjoses  to  His  activity."     Dokner,  TheoL,  Vol.  IV:  154 
Also,  Neandek,  Planting  and  Training,  etc.,  pp.  417,  scq. 


RELATION   TO    OTHER   DIVISIONS    OF   DOCTRINE.  7 

Hence  Ecclesiology,  which  may  be  defined  as  tJie  doctrine  of  Scrip- 
ture  respecting  the  Church,  in  the  broadest  sense  of  this  phrase,  is  an 
essential  and  conspicuous  division  of  Christian  Theology.  As  a  com- 
plete theological  system  can  not  pause  with  the  contemplation  of  the 
work  of  grace  wrought  in  the  individual  man,  but  must  proceed  to 
consider  that  work  as  wrought  out  more  extensively  in  the  heart  of 
humanity,  such  a  system  must  include  a  full  account  of  that  divine 
agency  through  which  this  broader  work  is  mainly  accomplished.  It 
must  thoughtfully  study  and  describe  the  Church,  not  merely  in  its  his- 
toric manifestations,  but  also  in  its  nature  and  constituents,  in  its  con- 
stitution and  spirit  and  capabilities,  and  in  its  authorized  relations  to 
the  salvation  of  mankind.  To  such  an  investigation,  conducted  on 
the  simple  basis  of  Scripture,  in  loyalty  to  the  divine  Word,  and  in 
the  temper  of  loving  appreciation,  attention  will  here  be  given. 

II.  Relation  to  other  Divisions  of  Christian  Doctrine. — 
It  is  important  at  the  outset,  that  this  division  of  sacred  doctrine 
should  be  set  in  proper  relations  to  the  other  main  departments  of 
Christian  theology.  Clear  and  sound  views  of  Revelation,  for  ex- 
ample, alone  can  furnish  adequate  protection  against  the  error  of  re- 
garding the  Church,  with  its  organization  and  ordinances,  as  a  human 
institution  merely;  or  against  the  equally  mischievous  error  of  going 
beyond  what  the  Bible  teaches,  and  claiming  divine  warrant  for  what 
are  mei'ely  the  churchly  contrivances  or  appointments  of  men.  In 
like  manner,  an  erroneous  Anthropology,  especially  on  the  point  of 
human  sinfulness  and  guilt  and  peril,  will  lead  on  at  once  to  pernicious 
theories  resj^ecting  the  real  need  or  the  proper  field  and  functions  of 
this  divine  organism.  Nor  can  any  sound  conception  of  the  Church, 
especially  in  its  great  providential  mission  in  the  world,  be  gained  by 
one  who  cherishes  serious  error  respecting  the  divine  Paternity, — the 
being  and  providence  and  moral  administration  and  gracious  purpose 
of  God  the  Father,  as  related  to  human  life  and  human  destiny.  Still 
more  obvious  is  it,  that  just  and  deep  views  of  the  person  and  work 
of  Christ  and  of  tlie  Holy  Spirit  (Soteriology  and  Pneumatology)  and 
especially  of  salvation  itself  contemplated  as  a  personal  experience  and 
possession,  must  furnish  an  essential  basis  for  sound  teaching  as  to  that 
peculiar  instrumentality  through  which  salvation  is  primarily  to  be 
diffused  and  perpetuated  among  men.  And  finally,  no  small  part  of 
the  error  into  which  many  fall,  respecting  the  future  of  humanity  on 
earth,  the  coming  and  reign  of  Christ  among  men,  the  ultimate  su- 
])remacy  of  true  religion,  the  article  of  death,  the  intermediate  estate, 
and  even  the  resurrection  and  judgment  and  the  life  to  come,  has  its 
origin  in  the  failure  to  appreciate  the  essential  elements,  the  true  sig- 
nificance, of  a  thoroughly  biblical  Ecclesiology. 


8  ECCLESIOLOGY :    INTRODUCTION. 

Two  general  tciulcucies  to  error  are  especially  recognizable  here. 
The  first  is  the  tendency  so  disastrously  illustrated  in  the  Papal,  and  in 
some  affiliated  communions, — the  tendency  to  lift  the  doctrine  of  the 
Church  out  of  its  proper  relation  to  other  departments  of  doctrine, 
and  to  give  it  an  undue  prominence  in  the  Christian  scheme :  to  exalt 
sacraments  and  ordinances  unduly,  to  carry  legitimate  authority  out 
into  tyrannical  api)lications,  and  even  to  make  the  Church  an  agent 
coordinate  with  Christ  himself  in  the  bestowment  of  salvation.  The 
second  is  the  tendency,  almost  equally  disastrous  among  Protestants,  to 
decry  churchly  authority,  to  undervalue  churchly  teaching,  to  regard 
sacraments  and  ordinances  and  constitutions  as  insignificant,  and  even 
to  pronounce  the  Church  a  human  organization  merely,  void  of  super- 
natural efficiency,  and  without  distinctive  mission  among  men.  Against 
all  such  })erversion  a  comprehensive  Ecclesiology,  constructed  j)urely 
from  the  Scripture  and  received  and  maintained  in  its  proper  relations, 
in  the  temjier  of  true  faith,  furnishes  the  only  adequate  protection. 

in.  Biblical  Basis  of  the  Doctrine. — The  cardinal  jirinciple  in 
construction  here  is  to  be  found  in  strict  adherence  to  the  teaching  and 
warrants  of  the  Word  of  God  respecting  the  Church.  For  the  obvious 
fact  is  that  the  Church  in  its  idea  is  a  purely  bil)lical  conception — as 
supernatural  as  the  scheme  of  salvation  itself.  Analogies  may  be  de- 
rived from  other  sources:  the  family  or  the  state,  for  exaaiple,  may 
furnish  illustrations  with  which  to  make  this  conception  more  vivid  or 
more  practical.  Men  may  legitimately  reason  in  detail  from  the  prin- 
ciples biblically  given:  applying  these  more  specifically,  or  drawing 
inferences  from  them  for  use  in  ecclesiastical  organization  or  adminis- 
tration. But  the  idea  of  the  Church  is  found  in  the  Bible  alone: 
nature  does  not  furnish,  nor  did  human  wisdom  produce  it.  All  the 
essential  principles,  all  the  main  elements,  all  the  r^al  authority  in  the 
case  must  be  derived  from  the  written  Word,  and  be  accepted  because 
the  written  Word  declares  them. 

That  this  bil^lical  conception  is  clear,  extensive,  adequate,  will  be- 
come fully  ai)parent  on  closer  examination.  How  large  a  place  the 
Church  has  occupied  from  the  beginning  in  the  economy  of  grace, 
every  student  of  the  Old  Testament  readily  perceives.  The  construc- 
tion and  organizing  and  government  of  the  Church,  and  the  utilizing 
of  the  Church  as  a  factor  in  the  development  of  piety  even  in  the 
Patriarchal,  and  still  more  distinctly  throughout  the  Mosaic  or  He- 
braic era,  constitute  in  fact  a  very  large  part  of  the  revealed  accounts 
of  that  introductory  dispensation.  In  a  way  still  more  marked,  the 
New  Testament,  after  its  biographic  records  concerning  our  Lord  him- 
self, is  occupied  very  largely  Avith  the  origin  and  formation,  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  and  practice,  the  prerogatives  and  duties,  and  the 


1 


BIBLICAL  BASIS   OF   ECCLESIOLOGY.  9 

historic  deyelopment  and  final  victory  of  the  Church.  We  see  the  divine 
idea,  introduced  in  the  earlier  dispensation,  further  expanded  and  jus- 
tified by  our  Lord  and  by  His  apostles,  until  at  length,  as  in  a  vision, 
we  discern  the  living  Church  standing  in  the  very  center  of  the  Chris- 
tion  scheme, — the  explaining  and  consummating  element  in  a  vital, 
progressive,  conquering  Gospel.  Nor  is  this  conqeption  to  be  viewed 
as  Pauline  simply :  for  while  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  gave  form  and 
method  largely  to  the  earlier  churches,  especially  on  Gentile  ground, 
yet  the  j)roi5er  warrant  for  such  construction,  and  the  essential  prin- 
ciples to  be  regarded  in  it,  Avere  first  carefully  defined  by  Christ  Him- 
self. It  is  also  obvious  from  the  narrative  in  the  Acts,  and  fi'om  his 
own  epistles,  that  Peter  shared  conspicuously  with  Paul  in  the  task  of 
primitive  church  organization.  Other  apostles,  as  is  evident,  were  as- 
sociated with  these  leaders  in  that  great  task  ;  and  in  fact,  under  apos- 
tolic direction  the  Church  went  as  an  essential  product  wherever  the 
Gospel  went,  whether  on  Gentile  or  on  Jewish  soil,  until  it  came 
finally  to  be  regarded  everywhere  as  the  representative  institution  of 
Christianity.  Throughout  the  New  Testament,  and  increasing  in  prom- 
inence as  this  later  volume  of  Kevelation  progresses,  the  doctrine  of  the 
Church  is  thus  extensively  and  adequately  revealed.  While  the  minor 
applications,  details  of  organization  and  administration,  are  not  given, 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  thus  taken  pains  to  set  forth  every  essential  ele- 
ment,— to  place  the  Divine  Idea  distinctly  and  impressively  before  the 
eye  of  faith. 

It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  this  biblical  disclosure  should  thoroughly 
regulate  all  inquiry  in  this  department.  There  is  indeed  always  room 
for  the  question  Avhether  any  given  sacrament  or  ordinance,  any  sj^ecific 
ofl[ice  or  form  of  constitution,  is  clearly  revealed  in  Scripture.  There 
is  always  room  for  the  further  question,  whether  any  particular  church 
rules  or  usages  or  judgments,  not  directly  prescribed  in  the  AVord  of  God, 
are  sustained  by  the  more  general  principles  laid  down  in  that  Word. 
But  the  cardinal  j)rinciple  to  be  insisted  upon  in  all  ecclesiastical  in- 
quiry, broad  or  minute,  is  the  supremacy  of  Scripture, — a  principle 
involving  prime  obligation  not  merely  to  receive  all  that  the  Scripture 
teaches,  but  also  to  pause  where  the  Scripture  pauses,  and  to  claim 
divine  warrant  for  nothing  beyond  what  the  Scripture,  faithfully  inter- 
preted, makes  clear. 

IV.  Sketch  OF  Opinions  in  Ecclesiology.— Departure  from  this 
principle  has  manifestly  been  the  chief  occasion  of  those  numerous  con- 
troversies and  conflicts,  running  through  the  centuries,  which  have  made 
the  history  of  Ecclesiology  one  of  the  saddest  sections  in  the  history  of 
Christian  Doctrine.  From  the  first  deviation  from  the  biblical  simplic- 
ity of  the  Apostolic  Age  down  to  our  own  time,  Christendom  has  been 


10  ECCLESIOLOGY :    IXTHODLXTION. 

incessantly  c(mvul.<cd  by  antagonistic  theories  of  the  Church, — divided 
into  contiicting  organizations  severally  claiming  on  serij)tural  authority 
to  be  the  authorized  household  of  faith.  During  the  three  or  four  cen- 
turies succeeding  the  Apostolic,  we  discern  the  j)rogressive  growth  of  a 
tendency,  earthly  and  human  rather  than  biblical,  to  materialize  the 
Church,  especially  under  the  form  of  the  episcopate.  Discontent  with 
the  simple  principles  and  methods  laid  down  in  the  Bible  combined 
easily  with  a  natural  longing  for  a  religious  organism  that  should  re- 
semble more  closely  such  a  vast,  massive,  regnant  structure  as  the 
Roman  State.  Hence  offices  were  gradually  multiplied;  official  dis- 
tinctions and  prerogatives  were  pressed  into  prominence;  the  clergy 
became  not  only  a  separate,  but  a  dominating  class ;  the  structure  of  the 
Church  throughout  grew  to  be  more  elaborate,  and  its  worship  more 
stately  and  spectacular,  and  its  authority  more  imperial.  The  entire 
process,  beautiful  in  some  aspects,  but  in  its  spiritual  influence  Avidely 
disastrous,  must  be  regarded  as  a  departure  throughout  from  the  writ- 
ten Word,  and  its  result  was  a  dislocation  of  the  Church  from  its  true 
position  in  the  Christian  scheme,  and  the  introduction  of  the  more  ex- 
tensive errors,  the  grosser  corruptions,  of  the  Papacy. 

For  ten  or  twelve  centuries  we  find  this  unscrij^tural  development 
maintaining  its  control,  and  subordinating  the  l)iblical  doctrine  to  the 
opinions  and  ambitions  of  men.  The  Church  becomes  less  and  less  a 
divine  family — grow's  to  be  more  and  more  a  spiritual  empire.  With 
one  infallible  head  as  king,  with  a  vast  array  of  princely  cardinals, 
bishops  and  minor  ecclesiastics,  with  a  superinduced  mass  of  precedents 
and  usages  unwarranted  by  the  divine  Word,  the  simple  institution 
which  Christ  and  His  apostles  founded,  changes  into  an  organism  wholly 
at  variance  with  both  the  letter  and  spirit  of  Scripture.  That  organ- 
ism becomes  at  length  the  central  and  the  controlling  factor  in  Chris- 
tianity. Doctrines  become  authoritative  only  as  it  annoimces  them ; 
sacraments  are  transmuted  into  gaudy  and  spiritless  forms ;  the  priest- 
hood grow  more  arrogant  and  more  corrupt  as  their  prominence  is  in- 
creased. Even  Christ  and  His  grace  become  at  length  subordinate  to 
the  control  of  the  Church,  and  salvation  is  as  truly  its  gift  as  His.  Such 
were  some  of  the  results  of  that  process  of  departure  from  the  clear 
teaching  of  Scripture,  which  it  was  one  of  the  primary  aims  of  the  Ref- 
ormation to  arrest. 

But  while  the  Reformation  was  largely  effectual  in  uprooting  this 
false  conception  on  which  the  Church  of  Rome  was  founded.  Protestant- 
ism was  unable  to  jirovide  a  substitute  in  which  all  could  be  agreed. 
Breaking  off  violently  from  the  Papal  system,  the  Reformers  were  pre- 
vented by  many  differences,  doctrinal  and  otherwise,  from  framing  to 
their  own  satisfaction  any  antithetic  conception  of  the  Church.     Old 


IIISTOEY    OF   OPINIONS.  11 

views,  usages,  standards,  stood  in  the  way :  questions  respecting  the  sac- 
raments, respecting  the  divine  right  of  government,  respecting  the 
proper  interpretation  of  certain  texts  of  Scripture,  impeded  their 
course.  Presbyterianism  of  various  types  and  shades  shared  the  field 
Avith  Episcopacy  on  one  side,  and  Independency  on  the  other.  Hence 
by  degrees  arose  those  divergent  and  antagonistic  organizations,  which 
gave  point  to  the  famous  taunt  of  Bossuet,  ^  and  which  still  furnish  to 
both  the  papist  and  the  skeptic  their  chief  weapon  of  assault  upon  evan- 
gelical Protestantism.  Hence  it  is  that  Ecclesiology  is  even  now,  as  it 
has  been  called,  the  undeveloped  and  obscure  element  in  the  Christian 
scheme  of  doctrine.  Like  the  correlative  department  of  Pneumatology, 
this  lies  as  yet  largely  in  the  shadow  of  those  great  truths  respecting 
Christ  and  His  objective  Avork  in  human  redemj^tion,  Avhich  it  was  the 
providential  mission  of  the  Eeformation  to  bring  into  the  foreground  of 
Christian  belief.  What  the  Protestantism  of  our  time  clearly  needs, 
next  to  a  deeper  insight  into  the  personality  and  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  substantial  agreement  concerning  Avhat  the  Bible  teaches  as 
to  the  Church,  and  a  concurrent  purpose  to  pause  Avhere  the  Bible 
pauses,  and  to  rest  all  church  organization  on  its  authority  alone. 

V.  iMrORTANCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  IXQUIEY  :  MeTHOD  OF  DISCUS- 
SION.— These  historic  glimpses  make  obvious  the  importance  of  careful 
study  of  this  department  in  Christian  Doctrine.  As  an  eminent  Avriter 
has  recently  declared,  there  is  in  this  domain  still  far  too  often  a  per- 
fect Babel  of  tongues.  After  generations,  even  centuries,  of  fierce 
conflict,  many  grave  questions  in  that  domain  are  still  unsolved.  Even 
the  proper  conception  of  the  Church  has  hardly  yet  been  framed ;  its  an- 
tiquity and  historic  unity  and  justifying  grounds  have  not  been  made 
clear;  its  coming  development  and  its  final  future  are  still  matter  of 
strenuous  debate.  Neither  the  meaning  nor  the  numbers  nor  the  rela- 
tions of  the  sacraments  have  been  satisfactorily  determined :  the  Sab- 
bath, the  various  means  of  grace,  the  right  conception  of  Avorship,  the 
orders  of  the  ministry,  are  still  in  issue.  The  A^arious  sects  and  schools 
of  Christendom  are  still  very  far  from  agreement  respecting  polity,  gov- 
ernment, discipline ;  and  the  final  unification  of  that  Christendom  in  the 
one  holy,  catholic  and  apostolic  Church  of  Avhich  the  earliest  creeds 
speak  in  such  gloAving  terms,  seems  to  human  A'icAV  rather  a  fabled 
dream  than  even  a  remote  possibility.     And  yet  such  church  questions 

'Bossuet:  Variations  of  the  Protestant  Churches.  "Let  them  therefore  do  what 
they  think  fit,  and  whatsoever  God  shall  suffer  them  to  do— in  respect  to  these 
vain  projects  of  agreement:  they  will  be  eternally  the  mntiial  punishment  and 
grievance  of  each  other ;  they  will  bear  eternal  testimony  against  each  other,  how 
unhappily  they  usurped  the  title  of  Reformers:  and  that  the  method  they  took 
£or  the  correction  of  abuses,  could  tend  to  nothing  but  the  subversion  of  Chris- 
tianity."— Appendix  to  Book  XIV. 


15  ecclesiology:  intkoduction. 

are  in  our  afro  continually  pres.sing  to  the  front  for  solution.  Vatican- 
ism, foiled  in  the  effort  to  retain  temporal  power,  is  endeavoring  all  the 
more  urgently  to  secure  spiritual  sui)remacy  through  its  theory  of  the 
Church,  and  to  make  it  clear  to  the  world  that  Protestantism  is  a  vast, 
mischievous,  guilty  schism.  Meanwhile  Protestants,  although  naturally 
less  affected  by  church  questions,  are  Ix'ing  led  to  see  how  mutually  de- 
structive their  positions  are,  and  to  blush  in  view  of  the  painful  contradic- 
tions as  to  the  Church  within  their  various  communions.  Urgent  as 
the  demand  of  the  age  is  for  the  immediate  proclamation  of  the  Gospel 
to  all  mankind,  and  urgent  as  is  the  kindred  demand  for  closer  and 
higher  application  of  the  principles  of  that  Gospel  to  human  life  in 
lands  already  Christianized,  yet  thoughtful  Protestants  are  more  and 
more  realizing  that  one  essential  preliminary  to  the  attainment  of  these 
ends  must  be  found  in  deeper,  broader,  more  harmonious  and  more  in- 
spiring views  of  what  the  Church  of  Christ  is,  as  the  divinely  chosen 
instrument  to  be  employed  in  securing  such  results.  Moreover,  at  the 
other  extreme  from  Romanism,  stands  a  thoughtless  indifferentism, 
which  neither  appreciates  what  the  Bible  teaches  concerning  the  Church, 
nor  contributes  in  any  way  to  make  that  Church  the  incomparable  so- 
cial and  evangelizing  force  it  ought  to  be.  Eationalism  generally 
goes  still  further,  regarding  the  Church  as  a  human  organization 
merely,  which  came  into  existence  at  a  certain  stage  in  the  development 
of  Christianity,  and  is  destined  at  a  more  mature  stage  in  that  develop- 
ment to  pass  away.  What  is  needful  on  all  sides  as  a  corrective  to  such 
tendencies,  is  a  thoughtful  return  to  the  biblical  conception  of  this  di- 
vine and  gi'acious  organism,  with  full  purpose  to  know  and  appropriate 
all  that  God  has  taught  us  respecting  it  in  His  unerring  Word. 

In  the  endeavor  to  unfold  this  biblical  conception,  the  first  aim  will  be 
to  set  forth  the  divine  idea  of  the  Church  as  given  in  Scripture, — to  sketch 
in  outline  the  historic  manifestation  of  this  idea,  and  to  suggest  the  gen- 
eral argument  for  the  existence  of  such  an  organization  as  a  factor  in  the 
scheme  of  redemption.  The  next  aim  will  be  to  present  with  some  de- 
gree of  fullness  what  maybe  styled  the  impersonal  elements  or  constit- 
uents of  the  Church ;  its  doctrines  and  confessions,  its  sacraments,  and 
■  its  ordinances.  An  examination  of  the  personal  constituents  or  factors 
'in  the  Church  will  follow,  including  especially  the  proper  theory  of 
church  membership,  and  the  true  view  respecting  church  officers,  and 
the  nature  and  scope  of  church  authority.  The  Church  as  organized 
under  some  visible  form  of  government  will  next  be  considered,  with  some 
reference  to  the  existing  varieties  of  such  government,  and  to  the  gen- 
eral principles  to  be  recognized  in  church  administration  and  especially 
in  church  discipline.  The  whole  discussion  will  be  concluded  with  some 
consideration  of  practical  topics  bearing  upon  the  internal  unity  of  the 


THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   DIVINE    PLAN.  13 

Church,  and  upon  its  vital  relations  to  human  society  and  to  human  , 
progress,  as  the  true  kingdom  of  God  among  men. 

In  these  investigations  the  supreme  purpose  will  be  to  state  simply 
what  is  plainly  taught  in  the  Divine  Word,  and  to  maintain  nothing 
which  is  not  by  direct  inference  clearly  deducible  from  this  biblical 
teaching.  Against  an  irreverent  indiflerence,  which  regards  ecclesi- 
ological  inquiry  as  of  small  import,  and  counts  the  Church  as  chiefly  a 
human  construction,  no  one  who  enters  on  such  studies,  can  too  care- 
fully guard  himself.  And  on  the  other  hand,  the  student  should  be 
carefully  protected  against  the  influences  of  an  insidious  ecclesiasticism 
which  too  often  confounds  with  divine  truth  the  fancies  and  command- 
ments of  men,  and  which  inevitably,  if  indulged,  transforms  the  disciple 
into  an  ecclesiastical  partizan,  alike  unwilling  and  unable  to  discern 
just  what  and  only  what  God  in  His  Word  has  set  forth  as  of  final  au- 
thority on  this  great  theme.  If  both  of  these  errors  be  sedulously 
shunned,  diligent  and  prayerful  study  will  surely  find  enough  in  this 
broad  field  both  to  compensate  for  toil  and  to  guide  in  duty  and  in  ser- 
vice within  that  Holy  Church,  whose  shelter  and  whose  privilege  all  be- 
lievers are  alike  entitled  to  share. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  DIVINE  PLAN: 

THE   IDEA,    THE   HISTORY,  AND   THE   JUSTIFICATION. 

The  first  step  in  the  attaining  of  a  truly  biblical  Ecclesi- 
ology,  is  to  define  the  term  Church,  and  to  ascertain  analytic- 
ally the  contents  of  that  term,  as  these  are  indicated  in  Scrip- 
ture. This  may  properly  be  followed  by  a  brief  sketch  of 
the  historic  unfolding  of  this  conception  in  the  economy 
of  grace,  as  seen  in  the  Patriarchal,  the  Hebraic  and  the 
Christian  dispensations.  The  chapter  will  be  concluded  with 
a  succinct  account  of  the  general  argument  for  such  an  or- 
ganization, as  an  essential  factor  in  the  scheme  of  human 
salvation. 

I.  Definition  OF  the  Term,  Church:  Various  Uses. — The  term 
Church,  (German,  hirelie;  Scotch,  kirk;  and  the  Teutonic  and  Scandi- 
navian languages  generally)  is  derived  from  the  Greek  word,  KvpcuKdg, — 


14  THE   CIIUKCII   IN   THE   DIVINE   PLAN. 

a  derivative  from  Ki'pmr.  It  was  soniotinies  applied  in  the  earlier 
English  to  the  Jewish,  or  even  to  a  pagan  place  of  worship.  It  signi- 
fied primarily  a  house  in  which  the  Lord  especially  dwelt — more 
broadly,  a  building  consecrated  to  religion.  The  Greek  derivative  Avas 
in  some  cases  used  (Liddcll,  Robinson,  m  loe)  with  reference  to  the 
Sabbath,  or  to  other  periods  of  time  consecrated  specially  to  the  Lord 
and  His  service.  It  came,  however,  to  be  employed  at  an  early  date 
to  designate  the  religious  organization  inhabiting  such  a  building,  and 
engaging  stirtedly  in  such  joint  devotions;  and  this  is  the  use  and  mean- 
ing here  to  be  retained.  The  term  eiai?T/ala  (Welsh,  eglunjs;  French, 
eglise;  Italian,  chiesa;  and  the  other  Romanic  languages)  illustrates  the 
same  transition  in  signification.  A])plicd  in  classic  Greek  to  any  assem- 
bly of  persons  called  out,  or  called  together,  for  any  specific  purpose 
(in  which  sense  it  is  employed  in  the  New  Test. :  Acts  19:  32,  39),  this 
term  came  early  to  designate  a  religious  or  a  Christian  assembly,  and 
such  an  assembly,  not  as  convened  on  a  single  occasion,  but  rather  as 
in  some  way  organized  and  having  permanent  existence.  The  same 
transition  appears  in  the  parallel  word,  cwayuy//,  often  employed  in  the 
Sept.  like  eKKh/aln,  to  describe  not  merely  the  place  of  assembling,  but  a 
company  of  persons  brought  together  for  religious,  and  even  in  some 
instances  for  secular  purposes, — thus  gradually  coming  to  indicate  a 
permanent  religious  congregation.  It  is  applied  by  our  Lord  to  the 
Jewish  synagogue,  Matt.  18:  17;  and  in  two  instances.  Acts  7:  38,  Heb. 
2:  12,  to  the  Israelites,  regarded  as  a  religious  body.  The  Hebrew 
terms,  nijr  (assembly  in  general)  and  ^i^p,  (assembly  for  worship;  see 
Lev.  4:  13-14,  where  both  words  are  used),  convey  essentially  the 
same  meaning;  they  find  their  nearest  parallel  under  the  Gospel  in 
the  term  Church.  It  is  to  the  New  Test,  however,  rather  than  the 
Old,  that  we  are  to  look  for  complete  definition  and  for  more  precise 
terminology.  The  Church  at  first  lived  chiefly  in  the  family,  or  dwelt 
in  and  with  the  state ;  it  was  the  special  work  of  Christ  and  His  apostles 
both  to  disengage  it  from  such  connections,  and  to  give  it  distinct  place 
and  form,  and,  therefore,  more  exact  appellatives. 

This  primary  signification  gradually  broadens  out  in  the  New  Test, 
into  three  separate  meanings,  which  need  to  be  carefully  noted  in  both 
their  affiliations  and  their  contrasts.  The  first  of  these  refers  to  a  par- 
ticular congregation,  assembling  in  any  consecrated  place  for  worship 
and  fellowship,  such  as  the  church  at  Rome  or  Colosse,  or  the  church  in 
the  house  of  Philemou;  Rom.  16:  5,  Coll.  4:  15,  Philemon  1:  2. 
These  were  individual  companies  of  believers,  convened  habitually  in 
certain  private  residences  or  places  for  religious  service  and  commun- 
ion. The  second  of  these  meanings  refers  to  a  group,  more  or  less  ex- 
tensive, of  such  particular  churches  located  in  a  given  district  or  region, 


DEFINITIONS   OF   THE   TERM.  15 

and  drawn  together  through  the  consciousness  of  a  common  faith  into 
some  form  of  voluntary  compact ;  as  the  churches  of  Galatia  or  of  Asia, 
1  Cor.  16:  1,  19.  If  there  were  several  congregations  in  such  cities  as 
Jerusalem  or  Antioch  or  Ephesus  or  Rome,  they  are  in  most  cases  de- 
scribed in  apostolic  usage  as  the  church  in  each  of  those  cities, — a  fact 
which  strongly  suggests  the  existence  of  some  form  of  organization 
binding  together  particular  congregations  in  given  localities  even  from 
the  earliest  times.  The  third  meaning  refers  to  the  collective  body  of 
those  who  professed  to  receive  the  Gospel,  or  to  the  complete  company 
of  those  who  were  truly  united  in  heart  to  Christ,  as  their  Lord  and 
Master;  Eph.  5 :  25,  1  Tim.  3:  15.  In  this  general  sense,  the  term 
sometimes  included,  not  merely  those  who  had  received  the  historic 
Christ,  but  also  all  those  who  from  the  earliest  periods,  and  in  the 
dim  light  of  the  Mosaic  or  the  Patriarchal  dispensation,  had  seen  and 
trusted  in  Him  as  their  promised  Redeemer;  Col.  1:  18.  It  compre- 
hended in  some  cases  the  whole  family  of  God,  not  only  on  earth,  but 
also  in  heaven,  nor  merely  those  who  had  lived  or  Avere  then  living,  but 
all  who  to  the  end  of  time  should  believe  in  Him  ;  Eph.  1 :  10-12.  The 
distinction  between  a  visible  profession  of  such  faith,  and  its  actual  ex- 
ercise as  manifested  in  a  truly  Christian  life, — between  the  church 
actual  and  the  church  ideal,  is  expressed  by  the  theological  rather  than 
biblical  terms,  visible  and  invisible.  ^ 

The  metaphors  employed,  especially  in  the  New  Test,  to  describe  the 
Church,  are  worthy  of  notice  in  this  connection.  The  Church  in  what- 
ever form  is  the  house  or  habitation  of  God,  1  Peter  2:  5;  the  temple 
of  God,  or  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  1  Cor.  3:  16;  the  city  of  God,  Rev.  21: 
2.  The  Church  is  the  flesh  of  Christ,  Eph.  5:  30;  the  body  of  Christ, 
1  Cor.  12:  27;  the  bride  of  Christ,  Eph.  5:  31-2.  The  Church  em- 
bodies in  itself  the  fullness  of  its  divine  Redeemer,  Eph.  1 :  22 ;  repre- 
sents His  grace  and  His  glory,  Eph.  5:  27;  is  the  j^illar  and  ground  of 
His  saving  truth,  1  Tim.  3:  15;  and  is  in  its  membership,  the  salt  of 
the  earth,  and  the  light  of  the  world,  Matt.  5:  13-14.  And  what  is 
thus  declared  to  be  true  respecting  the  Church  as  organized  under  the 
Gospel,  may  be  seen  to  be  true  from  the  Old  Test,  delineations  of  the 
Church,  under  the  Hebraic  dispensation,  and  even  in  the  Patriarchal 
ages.  Dear  as  the  apple  of  His  eye,  graven  as  a  holy  name  on  the 
palms  of  His  hands,  infinitely  precious  in  His  sight,  embodying  always 
His  loVe  and  His  grace,  the  Church  under  whatever  form  is  to  the  Tri- 
une Deity  ever  an  object  of  fathomless  interest.  Subordinately  to  the 
Lord  Himself,  it  may  justly  be  viewed  as  the  embodied  brightness  of 

'  On  the  various  uses  of  the  term,  Church,  see  Smith.  J.  Pye.  First  Lines  of 
Chrisi,  TheoL,  p.  617  seq. 


16  THE   CHURCH   IN    THE   DIVINE   PLAN. 

the  divine  glory,  and  the  express  image  or  representation  of  the  divine 
personality  among  men, 

II.  Analysis  of  the  Term. — Pjissing  from  this  general  view  to  the 
analysis  of  the  term,  church,  wc  may  discover  five  distinct  elements  or 
characteristics.  Of  these,  the  first  is  association;  a  church  is  always  a 
community  or  an  organization.  This  association  is  not  based  on  nat- 
ural relationship,  or  instituted  through  involuntary  connections,  like  the 
family  or  the  state.  The  relationship  is  voluntary  rather  than  natural ; 
those  wlio  enter  into  it  step  out  in  a  manner  more  or  less  marked  from 
their  natural  connections,  and  are  joined  together  on  a  distinctively 
spiritual  basis.  This  is  true  even  where  the  church  rests  within  a 
single  household,  like  that  of  Noah,  or  in  affiliation  with  a  single  nation 
like  the  Hebrews.  Still  more  obviously  is  this  true  under  the  Gospel, 
where  the  ties  of  kindred  or  of  nationality  are  entirely  ignored  by 
those  Avho  come  together  within  the  communion  of  the  church.  Here 
the  community  or  organization  is  simply  and  wholly  religious.  ^ 

More  distinctively,  the  inward  principle  and  bond  by  which  the 
church  is  held  together  is  pietij.  Every  such  association  is  a  company 
of  j5ersons  who  believe  in  God,  and,  under  the  Christian  economy,  in 
Christ,  and  who  are  devoted  to  the  divine  service.  There  may  be  per- 
sons within  its  visible  communion  who  have  no  such  qualification  for 
membership, — who  merely  profess  such  piety.  There  are  .entire 
churches,  or  even  extensive  sections  of  nominal  Christendom,  in  which 
this  qualification  is  hardly  apparent,  and  to  which  we  can  not  properly 
apply  the  honorable  phrase  of  ScrijDture,  the  church  of  the  living  God. 
We  recognize  also  a  species  of  inherited  connection — a  constructive 
membership  by  anticipation — enjoyed  by  the  children  of  believers,  be- 
fore they  have  attained  to  what  is  termed  personal  religion.  Yet  the 
general  fact  remains  that  the  uniting  bond  in  the  church,  under  all  dis- 
pensations, is  a  spiritual  bond,  instituted  and  sustained  through  the  ex- 
ercise of  personal  faith.  The  degree  and  the  forms  of  such  faith  doubt- 
less vary  in  different  stages  and  eras,  but  the  essential  principle  is  ever 
one  and  the  same.  Piety,  piety  alone,  is  the  conclusive  test  of  mem- 
bership ;  all  other  tests  and  qualifications  are  at  best  subordinate. 

The  third  element  in  the  conception  is  a  definite  form  of  constitution, — 
certain  rules  of  fellowship,  involving  responsibility  to  a  common  author- 
ity, and  controlling  within  prescribed  limits  the  individual  life  and  ac- 
tivity. A  church  may  indeed  exist  in  some  sense  without  a  written 
code — without  formal  regulations,  visibly  administered  and  visibly 
shaping  the  organization.      The  beautiful  picture   given  in  the  earlier 

*  "  Where  tlie  Holy  Spirit  unites  the  hearts,  there  a  community  must  exist,  from 
which  will  soon  proceed  a  communion  distinct  from  every  other." — Van  OosTEBr 
zee:  Dofjm.   Sec.  128. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE  CHURCH.  17 

chapters  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles — where  simple  piety  manifested  in 
peculiar  forms  of  faith  and  love  and  devotion  pervades  the  entire  com- 
munity as  a  celestial  inspii'ation,  higher  than  all  written  or  visible  law- 
exhibits  the  church  in  such  comparatively  unorganized  condition. 
During  the  millenial  era,  a  similar  elevation  of  the  church  may  be  en- 
joyed, superseding  all  formal  laws  and  constitutions  through  the  sov- 
ereign potencies  of  a  perfected  spiritual  life.  But  these  are  excep- 
tional conditions  rather  than  the  normal  and  permanent  state  of  the 
church  on  earth.  As  we  read  on  in  the  history,  we  soon  discover  in 
the  apostolic  church  the  growth  of  more  definite  organization,  the  ex- 
hibition of  recognized  authority,  an  administration  of  law,  which  shows 
us  more  exactly  what  is  the  divine  purpose  as  to  the  permanent  estate. 
This  characteristic  is  certainly  less  distinct  at  times,  as  in  the  Patriarchal 
era:  the  form  of  constitution  divinely  prescribed  is  not  always  the 
same.  But  the  Church  of  God  is  at  all  times  and  everywhere  a 
kingdom,  existing  under  law. 

As  this  divine  communion  has  in  all  ages  a  distinct  constitution,  and 
one  animating  principle,  so  it  has  in  all  ages  but  one  appointed  and  defi- 
nite eml, — an  end  in  harmony  with  the  divine  idea  and  purpose.  This 
end  is  embodied  in  the  two  words,  worship  and  testimony.  Worship 
is  the  expression  before  God,  in  suitable  forms,  such  as  praise  or  prayer, 
of  the  holy  sentiments  which  dwell  habitually  in  the  breasts  of  all  who 
truly  know  and  believe  in  Him.  Such  expression  is  due  to  Him,  in 
virtue  even  of  the  primary  or  natural  relations  which  we  discover  our- 
selves to  sustain  towards  Him  as  His  creatures,  and  His  subjects  and 
children.  It  is  more  eminently  due  to  Him,  in  virtue  of  the  spiritual 
relations  into  which  He  permits  us  through  faith  to  enter;  it  is  the 
spontaneous  manifestation  of  the  truly  filial  and  loving  spirit  here,  as  it 
is  an  instinctive  occupation  and  joy  of  angels  in  the  heavenly  state.  But 
God  desires  not  merely  individual  worship,  or  the  adoration  of  the  con- 
secrated household ;  He  desires  also  the  public,  organized,  swelling  cho- 
rus of  praise  ascending  from  the  great  congregation  of  those  who  love 
Him.  Hence  the  culture  of  believers  in  the  sacred  art  of  worship  is 
one  of  the  distinctive  functions  of  the  church,  and  the  oflfering  of  such 
worship  before  God  in  times  and  ways  appointed  by  Him,  is  her  pri- 
mary, her  highest  work.  —Kindred  to  this  is  the  function  of  testi- 
mony,— the  bearing  of  organized  and  permanent  witness  to  the  divine 
existence  and  character,  to  spiritual  truth  however  revealed,  and  es- 
pecially to  the  love  and  grace  of  God  as  manifested  in  the  plan  of  sal- 
vation. He  designs  His  church  to  be  in  this  sense  a  reflection  of  Him- 
self; the  expositor  of  His  law,  and  the  representative  of  His  grace. 
The  church  reveals  and  exhibits  His  glory,  as  no  individual,  or  aggre- 
gate of  individual  believers  standing  apart,  could  ever  do. — Nor  are 


18  THE   CHURCH    IN    THE   DIVINE   PLAN. 

these  two  fuuctious  conflicting  or  separate.  The  church  testifies  most 
impressively  while  engaged  in  truly  spiritual  worship  ;  in  a  deep  sense, 
it  worships  while  it  is  engaged  in  bearing  witness  before  men. 

The  final  characteristic  of  the  church  of  God  on  earth  is  permanence ; 
it  is  endowed  with  an  enduring  life.  As  an  association  or  community, 
it  has  the  crownmg  element  of  perpetuity :  though  voluntary  rather  than 
natural,  it  is  not  temporary,  but  abiding  as  an  organization.  Its  piety 
may  be  exhibited  under  various  forms,  and  in  various  measures,  but  the 
inward  spirit  will  abide,  unchanged  and  unchangeable.  The  forms  of 
its  constitution  may  vary,  and  its  laAvs  be  from  time  to  time  modified ; 
but  it  will  never  cease  to  be  a  noltreia.  Its  methods  of  worship  or  of 
testimony  may  change  with  the  ages,  but  its  testimony  is  to  be  as  en- 
during as  the  sun,  and  the  flames  of  its  worship  are  to  ascend  as  long 
as  the  earth  endures.  Particular  churches  may  dwindle  or  pass  into 
decay ;  the  whole  church  may  appear  at  certain  stages  in  its  peculiar 
history  to  be  well  nigh  extinguished.  Yet  an  enduring  life  is  the  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  the  Church  of  God  through  all  ages,  all  dispen- 
sations. It  is  so  rooted  in  the  religious  nature  of  men,  as  well  as  in  the 
divine  purpose — is  so  adjusted  to  the  abiding  needs  and  instincts  of 
holy  souls,  and  to  the  permanent  necessities  of  mankind,  and  sustains 
SD  vital  a  place  in  the  great  scheme  of  salvation,  that  it  can  not  per- 
ish while  the  Avork  of  saving  men  goes  on.  It  began  with  the  first 
crude  groupings  of  human  society ;  it  has  lived  on  through  all  subse- 
quent variations  in  the  condition  or  experience  of  humanity ;  it  still  re- 
tains in  undiminished  volume  its  essential  life  and  vigor.  We  may 
justly  infer  that  an  enduring  life,  continuing  while  the  world  lasts,  is 
one  of  its  essential  qualities. 

Bringing  together  the  five  characteristics  named,  and  ignoring  what 
is  peculiar  to  any  given  age  or  dispensation,  we  may  in  general  define 
a  church  as  an  organization  of  those  who  love  God,  existing  permanently 
under  some  prescribed  constitution,  for  the  purpose  of  worship  and  tes- 
timony concerning  Him.  More  broadly,  the  Church  of  God  on  earth  is 
the  company  or  community  of  the  pious,  separated  si^iritually  from  the 
rest  of  mankind,  and  existing  organically  through  all  time,  in  order  to  bear 
witness  to  His  person,  authority,  truth  and  grace,  and  to  worship  and 
glorify  Him  before  the  world.  If  the  definition  be  limited  to  the  church 
as  visible,  still  the  association  can  be  composed  only  of  those  who  pro- 
fess piety,  and  who  avow  themselves  to  be  consecrated  to  these  spiritual 
ends.  The  question  respecting  the  constructive  or  anticipatory  connec- 
tion of  the  children  of  believers  with  the  church,  will  be  considered  at 
a  later  stage.  AVhat  is  desired  here  is  simply  to  supply  a  general  defi- 
nition, which  shall  include  the  Church  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  well 


HISTORIC  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   CHURCH.  19 

as  the  Church  of  Christ  under  the  Gospel.    See  definition,  Westmin- 
ster Couf.,  Chap.    XXV:  Form  of  Gov.,  Chap.  II.  ^ 

III.  Historic  Unfolding  of  this  Generic  Conception. — Accept- 
ing this  general  definition  and  analysis  of  the  term,  we  may  next  note 
in  brief  the  historic  development  of  the  remarkable  institution  thus  de- 
scribed. For,  the  introduction  of  this  spiritual  organism  was  coeval 
with  the  earliest  manifestations  of  the  religious  nature  in  man;  it  was 
imbedded  in  that  nature  as  truly  as  the  family  was  imbedded  in  the  do- 
mestic, or  the  state  in  the  political  nature  of  humanity.  The  formal 
structure  which  all  varieties  of  natural  religion,  even  the  crudest,  as- 
sume at  certain  stages  in  their  development,  is  evidence  that  such  a 
tendency  exists  in  the  religious  nature  of  man.  So  far  as  the  true  faith 
is  concerned,  the  evidence  is  conclusive.  Not  merely  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, under  the  Christian  dispensation,  but  just  as  truly  in  the  Old 
Testament,  under  the  Hebraic  dispensation,  do  we  find  this  divine  or- 
ganism springing  into  existence.  Nor  did  the  Church  assume  its  first 
definite  form  under  the  shaping  hand  of  Moses,  or  grow  into  distinctness 
and  power  in  the  succeeding  age  of  Samuel  or  David,  or  the  prophets. 
We  may  go  back  to  the  patriarchal  period,  and  in  the  families  of  Jacob 
and  Isaac  and  Abraham,  and  in  the  primitive  household  of  Noah,  find 
traces  of  its  presence.  AVe  may  follow  up  still  further  the  earlier  lines 
of  this  gracious  development,  and  obtain  proofs  that,  as  soon  as  men 
even  before  the  deluge  became  conscious  of  their  spiritual  life  and  rela- 
tions, they  began  to  be  associated  together  in  what  were  the  primeval 
forms  of  the  Church  of  God  on  earth.  While  these  introductory  rev- 
elations are  of  necessity  too  brief  to  be  made  the  basis  of  much  specu- 
lative reasoning,  it  still  is  interesting  and  important  to  discern  this 
divine  institution  appearing  thus  at  the  very  origin  of  the  religious  life 
in  humanity. 

What  we  are  to  sketch  is  therefore  not  a  series  of  churches  following 
one  another  in  a  divinely  ordered  succession,  each  tributary  to  its  suc- 
cessor, yet  substantially  independent  of  it,  but  rather  a  single  organism 
assuming  a  variety  of  outward  form  and   existing  under  diversified 

'  The  marks  or  notes  of  the  Church  Invisible,  according  to  the  New  Test.,  are 
catholicitj'^  or  universality,  sanctity  or  piety,  and  infallibility— in  the  sense  of  a 
continuous  and  supreme  guidance  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  such  as  befits  the 
earthly  body  of  Christ.  Romanism  rejects  the  conception  of  an  invisible,  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  visible  Church;  and  demands  for  the  latter,  as  its  distinguishing 
marks  or  notes.— to  quote  from  Bellarmine— profession  of  the  true  faith,  com- 
munion in  the  sacraments,  and  submission  to  a  legitimate  head,  the  Roman 
pontiff.  Calvin,  for  all  the  Reformers,  held  that  any  church  is  a  true  church  in 
which  are  found  belief  in  the  Gospel,  the  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  due  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments  :  Institutes,  Book  IV :  Chap.  1.  So  the  Reformed 
Confessions  generally :  for  summary,  see  Hodge,  TheoL,  I:  135-137. 


20  THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   DIVINE   PLAN. 

earthly  conditions,  still  retaining  in  all  dispensations  the  same  essential 
characteristics,  and  aiming  to  subserve  always  one  and  the  same  spiritual 
end.  This  true,  interior,  indestructible  unity  is  to  be  held  as  an  indis- 
pensable element  in  our  investigation.  Protestantism  has  sometimes 
surrendered  this  cardinal  doctrine  of  unity,  under  the  pressure  of  some 
specific  inference  as  to  sacrament  or  belief  or  order,  but  always  at  far 
greater  cost  than  advantage.  That  the  Church  of  God  on  earth  has 
from  the  beginning  been,  is  now,  and  is  to  be  until  the  close  of  the 
Gos})el  economy,  one  Church,  is  a  fundamental  projiosition  in  the 
Christian  scheme.^  We  may,  however,  trace  at  least  three  distinct 
forms  under  which  this  one  Church  has  existed,  three  varieties  of  con- 
dition in  which  it  has  been  set,  three  types  of  relation  Avhich  it  has  sus- 
tained to  humanity.  These  may  be  classed  as  the  Patriarchal,  the  He- 
braic, and  the  Christian. 

IV.  The  Church  Patriarchal:  First  Division. — In  tracing  the 
course  of  the  Church  Patriarchal,  we  may  i:)roperly  consider  the  subject 
under  two  main  divisions:  the  Church  prior  to  Abraham,  and  the 
Church  Abraharaic. — It  is  not  without  reason  that  the  historic  allusions 
in  Gen.  4:  26,  and  Gen.  6:  2,  are  viewed  as  descriptive  of  a  religious 
distinction  already  established  among  men.  Thus  early  the  pious 
called  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  were — as  many  commentators 
suggest — called  by  the  name  of  the  Lord;  they  were  the  recognized 
sons  of  God  in  contrast  with  the  sous  and  daughters  of  men.  ^  Have 
we  not  warrant  for  believing  also  that  the  institution  of  sacrifices  which 
existed  as  a  personal  rite  in  the  age  of  Abel,  became  early  a  jiublic 
as  well  as  private  mode  of  worship?  Was  not  the  Sabbath,  even  from 
the  creation,  a  time  consecrated  to  associated  as  well  as  individual  devo- 
tion? May  not  the  first  Messianic  promise  (Gen.  3:  14-19),  brief  and 
indistinct  though  it  may  have  appeared,  have  been  from  the  beginning 
a  sufficient  basis,  not  merely  for  personal  laith,  but  also  for  religious 
combination  and  fellowship,  in  the  presence  of  a  world  extensively 
verging  toward  unbelief?  It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  while  the 
first  of  these  historic  references  relates  to  a  time  comparatively  contig- 
uous to  the  Fall,  the  second  follows  a  period  of  fourteen  centuries 
during  which  the  earth  was  rapidly  filling  with  population,  and  human 
society  had,  at  least  in  other  respects,  assumed  definite  and  permanent 
form.     Moreover,  it  is  certain  that  during  this  long  period  God  com- 

'  On  the  Unity  and  Perpeiuity  of  the  Church,  Hodge,  Church  Polity,  p.  67-88. 

*  "The  religious  thought  it  necessary  to  attach  to  themselves  the  title  of  Sons 
or  Worshipers  of  God,  in  distinction  from  the  sons  of  men."— Jahn,  Archseology, 
p.  378.  "They  took  upon  themselves  the  title  of  the  Sons  of  God  ;  considering 
themselves  as  His  children  by  adoption,  in  distinction  from  wicked  men,  who 
were  the  children  of  God  by  creation  only."— Dwight,  Senn.,  149.  See  Delitzsch 
is  JLajscijc,  Genesis,  in  he ;  especially  the  Dissertation,  Bene  Elohim. 


THE   CHUECH   PATRIARCHAL.  21 

muned  habitually  ■svitli  individual  saints,  sucli  as  Enoch  and  Lamech 
(Gen.  5:  22,  29),  and  that  household  piety  existed  in  primitive  sim- 
plicity at  many  points,  in  the  presence  of  abounding  sin.  And  surely 
it  is  no  unwarrantable  inference  from  such  premises  that,  although  we 
may  learn  nothing  respecting  its  actual  structure,  a  living  and  visible 
Church  had  existence  among  men  from  century  to  century,  down  to 
the  diluvian  age. 

It  was  a  fearful  declension  among  the  sons  of  God  thus  set  apart,  as 
well  as  the  outbreaking  wickedness  among  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
men,  which  brought  on  the  retribution  of  the  deluge.  The  Church  had 
apparently  been  compressed  by  surrounding  sin  within  the  narrow  lim- 
its of  a  single  family ;  Gen.  6 :  8-9.  The  general  condition  of  the  race 
is  fearfully  sketched  by  our  Lord  Himself;  Matt.  24:  36-39.  But 
household  religion  still  survived.  Notwithstanding  the  offense  of  Noah, 
the  narrative  concerning  him,  studied  in  the  light  of  later  allusions, 
justifies  the  belief  that  he  possessed  the  piety  requisite  to  true  church 
membership,  and  that  he  had  trained  his  family,  prior  to  the  great  ca- 
tastrophe, to  the  exercise  of  like  faith,  and  to  the  forms  of  public  wor- 
ship. His  first  act  after  the  deluge  (Gen.  8 :  20-22)  was  to  erect  an 
altar,  and  to  offer  sacrifices  thereon,  in  the  presence  of  his  household — 
a  religious  usage  doubtless  derived  from  his  devout  ancestry,  and  indi- 
cating of  itself  an  established  mode  of  social  devotion.  The  gift  to  him 
of  the  second  Messianic  promise  (Gen.  9 :  25-27)  is  further  assurance 
that  he  was  a  sincere  believer  in  the  first  promise ;  and  we  are  assured 
that  this  second  promise  became  to  him,  and  to  his  family,  the  basis  of 
an  enlarged  spiritual  union  and  fellowship.  Is  it  too  much  to  assume 
on  these  evidences  that  the  Church  of  God  really  existed  within  this 
sanctified  household,  and  that  this  Church  in  the  form  it  assumed  after 
the  deluge,  with  altar  and  sacrifice,  was  the  fit  reproduction  and  succes- 
sion of  the  Church  which  God  had  instituted  in  the  very  beginning 
of  human  history?  From  the  deluge  to  the  calling  of  Abrahaln — a 
period  of  four  centuries — no  distinct  record  of  the  Church  remains. 
The  story  of  the  attempt  to  rear  the  tower  of  Babel  (Gen.  11:  1-9) 
shows  us  how  disastrously  sin  had  become  diffused  among  the  teeming 
populations  which  sprang  from  the  three-fold  stock  of  Noah,  exhibiting 
itself  at  length  in  open  rebellion  against  God,  and  in  guilty  fear  of  His 
providence  and  of  His  wrath.  Cities  had  meanwhile  been  builded; 
nations  had  been  founded;  lands  and  territories  had  been  divided. 
Humanity  had  grown  a  second  time  into  maturity ;  and  of  that  matur- 
ity, as  in  the  earlier  era,  sin  was  the  crowning  characteristic.  Yet 
there  are  evidences  that  religion  still  survived,  as  a  social  element  as 
well  as  a  personal  experience.  There  were  still  devout  households  like 
those  of  Terah  and  Haran,  in  which  the  deposit  of  grace  yet  dwelt  in 


22  THE  CHURCH   IN   THE  DIVINE   PLAN. 

safety;  Gen.  11:  27-29.  The  traditions  of  an  earlier  age,  especially 
the  Messianic  promises,  were  preserved  in  memory;  tlie  traditional 
modes  of  worship  survived,  and  the  Church  still  lived. 

V,  The  Church  Patriarchal:  Second  Division. — Descending  in 
tlic  order  of  time  to  the  Church  Abrahamic,  we  find  that,  in  the  plirase 
of  Luther,  God  for  the  third  time  begins  the  history  of  the  Church 
with  a  new  family.  That  history  opens  with  the  third  Messianic  prom- 
ise (Gen.  12:  1-3),  in  which  the  salvation  to  come  was  directly  associ- 
ated with  the  household  of  Abraham,  as  in  the  second  it  had  been  as- 
sociated with  the  name  of  Shem,  his  ancestor.  The  special  covenant 
with  Abraham  recorded  in  Gen.  17:  with  its  specific  ordinance  of  cir- 
cumcision, and  its  special  assurances  as  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  must 
be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  this  antecedent  promise.  The  spiritual 
experience  of  the  earlier  patriarchs  was  also  reproduced  in  Abraham, 
with  clearer  recognition  of  the  divine  will  as  the  law  of  life,  with  higher 
phases  of  feeling  and  purpose,  and  with  a  more  distinct  engrafting  of 
religion  upon  his  household,  and  through  him  upon  the  family  life  of 
mankind.  Especially  on  its  material  side,  this  third  promise  was  re- 
peated successively  to  Isaac  and  to  Jacob,  among  the  posterity  of  Ab- 
raham (Gen.  26:  24,  28:  13-16,  35:  9-12),  with  such  exactness  of 
language,  and  such  carefulness  of  application,  as  to  leave  no  room  for 
doubt  that  they  were  the  lineal  inheritors  of  the  Church,  with  aU  its 
attendant  blessings.  Religion  flourished  iu  their  households,  in  the 
same  forms,  under  the  same  spiritual  conditions,  and  distinguished  by 
the  same  initiatory  and  typical  rite,  as  before  in  the  family  of  Abraham. 
Notwithstanding  the  degeneracy  and  idolatry  prevalent  around  them, 
and  even  among  their  own  kindred  iu  the  country  of  Haran,  these  re- 
ligious families  thus  became  repositories  of  the  true  faith, — the  home 
and  refuge  of  the  divinely  constituted  Church. 

This  association  of  the  churchly  with  the  domestic  life  of  man — this 
combination  of  the  church  with  the  family,  preparatory  to  its  assump- 
tion of  the  tribal  type,  is  further  illustrated  in  conjunction  with  the 
fourth  Messianic  promise,  referring  to  Judah,  among  the  sons  of  Jacob, 
as  the  elect  ancestor  of  the  Savior  to  come;  Gen.  49:  8-12. ^  Though 
Judah  was  made  chief,  there  can  be  no  question  that  all  of  the  sons  of 
Jacob  shared  in  the  spiritual  hope  which  sprang  directly  from  that 
promise,  or  that  their  households  were  drawn  and  held  together  by  the 
consciousness  of  religious  life  which  that  promise  justified.  The  anti- 
cipated Shiloh  shed  his  unifying  influence  on  all  alike;  inspiring  them 
to  a  common  worship,  leading  them  to  observe  the  same  religious  cere- 
monial, and  giving  to  each  a  recognized  place  and  name  within  the  one 
household  of  faith. 


:  Hengstenbekg,  Christology :  Vol.  I.    Messianic  Prophecies  in  the  Pentateuch. 


THE  HEBRAIC   CHURCH.  23 

From  the  descent  of  the  twelve  consecrated  families  into  Egypt  to  the 
deliverance  under  Moses — a  period  of  two  centuries,  or  more — we  are 
left  to  incidental  allusions,  such  as  the  one  recorded  in  Ex.  2 :  23-25, 
in  which  the  traditional  preservation  of  the  ancestral  religion  and  the 
continued  trust  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  ancient  promises  are  made  mani- 
fest. The  descendants  of  Abraham  unquestionably  bore  with  them  into 
their  Egyptian  exile  the  cardinal  elements  of  the  patriarchal  faith,  and 
continued  to  observe  the  religious  rites  in  Avhich  they  had  been  trained 
in  Canaan.  As  they  clung  to  the  covenant  of  their  fathers,  we  may 
believe  that  they  endeavored  to  comply  with  the  spiritual  conditions 
which  that  covenant  imposed.  One  interesting  reference  (Ex.  16:  22- 
30)  to  their  recognition  of  the  Sabbath,  after  the  Exodus  but  prior  to  the 
Sinaitic  command,  may  be  regarded,  notwithstanding  the  objection  urged 
by  Paley,  as  clearly  revealing  not  merely  a  tradition,  but  also  an  habit- 
ual observance.  But  a  Sabbath  as  clearly  presupposes  public  sacrifices, 
and  other  acts  of  social  worship,  and  is  strongly  suggestive  of  a  recog- 
nized church  life,  as  existing  throughout  this  disciplinary  period  in  the 
Hebraic  history.  It  is  no  empty  presumption  therefore  that  the  an- 
cestral faith  still  survived,  and  that  Moses,  in  the  reconstruction  that 
followed,  was  mainly  enunciating  afresh  and  with  more  direct  author- 
ity from  God,  religious  institutions  and  forms  of  organization  whose 
fruitful  germs  had  thus  been  graciously  preserved  in  the  heart  of  the 
chosen  people. 

VI.  The  Church  Hebraic:  Two  PRELUvmsrARY  Remarks. — Fol- 
lowing the  exodus,  occurs  not  merely  the  organization  of  a  more  strictly 
national  life — the  twelve  tribes  passing  consciously  and  freely  into  the 
one  Hebrew  state,  but  also  the  constituting  of  the  Church  in  a  corres- 
ponding form  as  representative  not  of  family  devotion  or  tribal  faith, 
but  of  the  religion  of  the  nation.  We  may  glance  first  at  the  specific 
modifications  which  that  transformation  induced,  and  then  at  the  his- 
tory of  the  organization  thus  instituted.  Two  introductory  considera- 
tions should  be  noted  at  the  outset : 

The  divine  selection  of  the  Hebrew  nation  to  be  for  fifteen  centuries 
the  particular  home  and  safeguard  of  the  Church,  is  often  misappre- 
hended by  those  who  suppose  themselves  to  see  in  this  selection  an  in- 
justice to  other  tribes  and  races  of  men.  But  was  it  not  inevitable  that 
religion,  beginning  as  it  must  with  individual  souls,  should  pass  first 
into  the  household,  and  from  the  family  into  the  tribe,  by  a  natural 
and  healthful  process  of  diffiision,  until  the  time  came  when  it  could 
pass  further,  as  it  did,  from  the  tribe  into  the  nation,  and  so  become 
at  length  a  corporate  factor  in  the  national  life?  And  was  it  not  as  in- 
evitable that  the  true  religion  should  tarry  awhile  in  the  nation,  as  it 
had  before  done  in  the  pious  household,  until  the  appointed  day  when 


24  THE   CHURCH   IN    THE   DIVINE   PLAN. 

it  might  successfully  pass  beyond  all  national  boundaries,  and  enter  as 
a  controlling  power  into  the  life  of  mankind, — pervading  all  countries 
and  races  with  its  hallowing  influences,  and  sanctifying  our  humanity 
in  the  aggregate  ?  In  fact,  the  divine  election  of  individuals  or  fam- 
ilies, tribes  or  nations,  has  always  l)een  the  introductory  step  to  a 
larger  good,  in  which  others  were  finally  to  share  equally  with  the  first 
recipients.  And  properly  vicAved,  the  Hebraic  Church,  like  the  Patri- 
archal, will  be  seen  to  be  but  a  temporary,  yet  indispensable  preparation 
for  the  Church  Universal. 

The  other  explanatory  remark  relates  to  the  peculiar  com1)ination 
between  the  Church  Hebraic  and  the  Hebrew  state.  The  reasons  for 
that  combination  are  largely  of  the  class  just  suggested.  Was  not  a 
political  organization  indispensable  to  the  safety  and  growth  of  the 
spiritual  organism  so  intimately  associated  with  it?  As  the  state  uni- 
fied the  twelve  tribes,  retiring  their  differences  in  the  presence  of  one 
national  constitution,  and  binding  them  together  by  the  consciousness 
of  common  interests  and  destiny,  so  it  tended  to  consolidate  their  re- 
ligious beliefs,  to  harmonize  their  spiritual  experiences,  and  to  make 
their  worship  one  and  the  same.  Moreover,  the  state  was  itself  a  the- 
ocracy, controlled  mainly  by  religious  rule  and  obligation,  and  there- 
fore in  many  of  its  appointments  a  species  of  religious  culture.  While 
the  state  gave  form  and  strength  to  the  Church,  the  Church  in  turn 
penetrated,  ruled,  sanctified  the  state.  This  fact  was  esi:)ecially  obvi- 
ous after  the  entrance  into  Canaan,  during  the  period  of  the  Judges, 
and  eminently  in  the  royal  era  before  the  national  rupture.  The  rea- 
son for  the  combination  doubtless  lay  in  the  stage  of  development 
which  the  Church  at  that  juncture  had  attained;  when  the  reason 
ceased,  the  relationship  ceased  also,  and  the  Church  lived  on  in  higher 
form,  while  the  nation  as  a  nation  died.  A  proper  understanding  of 
these  relations  between  the  Hebrew  Church  and  the  Hebrew  state,  it 
should  be  added,  is  of  vital  importance  in  the  solution  of  numerous  ec- 
clesiastical issues, — such  as  some  of  those  between  Romanism  and  Prot- 
estantism,— which  the  Christian  thought  of  our  time  is  especially  called 
upon  to  consider.  ^ 

Vn.  The  Church  Hebraic:  Its  Special  Characteristics. — As 
compared  wath  its  predecessor,  the  Hebrew  Church  Avas  marked  by  the 
following  distinctive  features.  First  of  all,  Ave  find  a  marked  develop- 
ment of  doctrine, — an  enlargement  in  both  the  quantity  of  religious 
truth  known,  and  the  degree  of  clearness  Avith  Avhich  truth  Avas  appre- 

*  Authors  to  be  consulted  on  the  general  subject:  Michaet^is,  Commentaries  on 
the  Laws  of  Moses:  AVarburton,  Divine  Legation  of  Moses:  Book  IV,  especially. 
Hengsten'berg,  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  Old  Test.  Kurtz,  Hist,  of  Old  Covenant. 
Also,  Oehlee,  Theol.  of  Old  Test. 


FEATURES  OF  THE  HEBRAIC  CHURCH.  25 

hended.  The  existence  and  general  attributes  of  God,  recognized  and 
believed  in  from  the  first,  were  made  far  more  distinct ;  the  power  and 
sovereignty  of  God  were  greatly  emphasized  by  the  experiences  in 
Egypt  and  at  Sinai,  and  through  the  providential  interpositions  of  the 
wilderness,  and  the  triumphal  advent  into  the  promised  land ;  the 
moral  qualities  of  the  Deity,  such  as  justice  and  purity  and  holiness  and 
grace,  were  brought  out  into  peculiar  light.  The  divine  grace,  revealed 
before  in  promises,  was  now  shadowed  forth  in  new  suggestive  cere- 
monies, and  affirmed  by  further  direct  revelations.  In  the  aggregate 
this  larger  treasure  of  sacred  doctrine  constituted  a  marked  peculiarity 
of  the  Hebraic,  as  distinguished  from  the  Patriarchal  Church. — A 
more  definite  and  comprehensive  law  was  another  of  these  distinguish- 
ing features.  It  is  not  important  here  to  consider  the  question  whether, 
in  the  economy  of  grace,  there  was  any  divine  provision  for  what  has 
been  termed  a  progressive  morality.  But  the  fact  should  be  noted  that 
the  great  principles  of  morality,  stamped  on  the  moral  constitution  of 
man  and  obligatory  on  men  in  all  anterior  ages,  were  here  explained, 
expanded,  applied,  and  made  as  never  before  the  recognized  basis  of 
church  life.  The  substance  of  the  Decalogue,  for  illustration,  had  al- 
ways been  obligatory :  the  shedding  of  blood  was  murder,  slander  was 
sinful,  even  from  the  days  of  Abel.  The  enactments  at  Sinai  Avere  but 
fresh  declarations,  in  more  distinct  and  impressive  form,  of  what  men 
had  known  and  had  been  bound  always  to  observe.  Yet  this  Sinaitic 
law,  with  its  wider  and  closer  application,  marked  a  new  era  in  the 
moral  history  of  mankind,  and  especially  in  the  career  of  the  Church 
on  which  its  requisitions  were,  amid  such  awful  demonstrations  of  di- 
vine authority,  specifically  imposed.  Henceforth,  that  authority  was 
to  be  more  directly  acknowledged  ;  both  the  outward  life  and  the  dispo- 
sition and  the  heart  of  believers  Avere  to  be  more  closely  regulated  and 
tested.  Law  was  to  enter  in  more  impressive  aspect  into  the  religious 
life  of  the  Church,  in  order  that  at  length  grace  might  the  more 
abound.  ^ 

In  conjunction  with  an  expanded  doctrine  and  a  more  definite  law, 
we  discover  a  prescribed  ritual.  Whether  we  regard  sacrifices  as  orig- 
inating in  some  profound  instinct  of  human  nature,  or  as  already  di- 
rectly enjoined  by  Jehovah  upon  the  patriarchs,  we  discover  the  insti- 
tution here  assuming  complete  form,  and  becoming  the  type  and 
vehicle  of  a  scheme  of  redemptive  grace.  The  prescribed  ceremonials 
of  the  Hebrew  Church  were  far  in  advance  of  the  observances  that  had 
preceded  them,  in  respect  to  their  variety  and  elaborateness,  their 
power  to  impress  the  soul,  and  their  authoritativeness.  They  were  not 
only  fitted  to  induce  and  cultivate  a  new,  better  type  of  religious  ex- 

*  Wines.     Laws  of  the  Ancient  Hebrews,  especially,  Book  I ;  Chai).  I :  II. 


26  THE  CHURCH  in  the  divine  plan. 

perience ;  they  Avcre  also  fitted  to  prepare  the  way  peculiarly  for  the 
advent  of  a  still  higher  economy  of  redemption.  Both  of  these  ends 
were  sought  in  that  remarkable  ritual ;  and  the  degree  of  spiritual 
vitality  attained  under  its  influence  is  conclusive  proof  of  its  value  as 
a  feature  in  the  Hebrew  Church. — With  this  should  be  associated  the 
tributary  institution  of  the  priesthood,  the  construction  of  the  sanctuary, 
and  the  direct  regulations  as  to  the  Sabbath, — all  designed  to  assist  in 
the  culture  of  such  an  enlarged  type  of  religious  experience  among  the 
chosen  people.  Aforetime,  the  head  of  each  household,  the  patriarch 
of  each  tribe,  had  filled  the  priestly  office.  In  that  mysterious  person- 
age, Melchisedcc,  priest  and  king  at  once  in  a  Avider  relation  (Gen.  14: 
18-20,  Heb.  7:  1-lG),  we  discern  the  first  hint  of  that  broader  official 
priesthood  afterwards  realized  in  Aaron  and  his  descendants,  and  more 
remotely  in  our  Lord  himself.  Such  a  consecrated  order  needed  a  taber- 
nacle or  temple,  with  its  ark  and  tables  and  altars,  as  a  suitable  place, 
and  also  the  Sabbath  and  an  ordained  series  of  holy  occasions  as  suit- 
able times  wherein  they  might  adequately  discharge  their  priestly 
functions  in  behalf  of  the  people.  The  relation  of  these  persons, 
places,  times,  as  accessories  to  the  Church  into  which  they  were  author- 
itatively introduced,  can  not  be  too  carefully  studied,  especially  in  the 
light  of  their  subsequent  reproduction,  in  more  spiritual  forms,  under 
the  higher  economy  of  the  Gospel. 

It  should  also  be  observed  that  the  patriarchal  seal  of  membership  was 
preserved  and  made  obligatory  under  the  new  dispensation.  The  de- 
vout Hebrew  was  not  only  to  believe  in  the  larger  truth  revealed,  to 
submit  himself  to  the  more  comprehensive  and  spiritual  law,  to  con- 
form to  the  elaborated  ritual  with  its  special  observances  and  adjuncts, 
but  also  to  signify  his  full  acceptance  and  submission  by  receiving  in 
his  own  person  and  in  his  offspring  the  distinguishing  mark  by  which 
the  true  Hebrew  was  to  be  set  apart  perpetually  from  all  other  men. 
This  was  not  a  national  mark  merely ;  it  was  a  religious  seal  also,  ex- 
pressing the  same  spiritual  truths  as  when  it  was  first  imposed  upon 
Abraham  (Gen.  17:  9-14),  and  assuring  its  recipients  of  the  same  cov- 
enanted grace.  And  in  the  instituting  of  this  sacramental  observance, 
the  constitution  of  the  Hebraic  Church  became  complete. — In  closing 
this  survey,  it  is  important  to  note  here  both  the  resemblances  to  the 
Church  of  the  patriarchs,  and  the  contrasts  apparent  at  each  of  these 
five  points.  While  we  see  essentially  the  same  doctrine,  rule,  cere- 
mony and  seal,  we  see  these  set  always  in  fresh  relations,  and  invested 
with  added  meaning  and  dignity.  The  contrast  becomes  as  marked 
almost  as  the  resemblance ;  it  is  sometimes  so  misapprehended  as  to  lead 
to  the  false  notion  of  another  and  different  Church.  But  closer  exam- 
ination reveals  an  essential  identity,  in  which  the  Church  Patriarchal 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  HEBRAIC  CHURCH.  27 

is  the  living  germ  aud  the  Church  Hebraic  the  developed  plant,  fra- 
grant with  larger  grace  aud  larger  blessing. 

VIII.  The  Hebraic  Church  :  Its  Historic  Development  :  Three 
Eras. — From  this  cursory  view  of  the  essential  features  or  character- 
istics of  the  Hebraic  Church,  we  may  turn  to  note  its  history  in  brief, 
with  special  reference  to  its  preparatory  relation  to  the  more  glorious 
Church  afterwards  to  be  established  under  Christ.  ^  For  twenty-five 
centuries  from  the  Fall,  and  nearly  fifteen  centui'ies  from  the  new  or- 
ganization of  mankind  in  the  household  of  Noah,  the  Church  had  lived 
substantially  within  the  family.  For  fifteen  centuries  more  it  was  to 
exist  in  this  national  form,  dwelling  Avithin  the  territory  of  a  single 
people,  and  separated  by  certain  broad  lines  from  contact  with  the  rest 
of  the  race.  Both  the  first  and  the  second  of  these  remarkable  arrange- 
ments should  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  the  principle  already  stated : 
the  seclusion  and  segregation  were  always  in  order  to  and  suggestive 
of  an  ultimate  expansion  and  universality.  The  families  of  the  earth 
were  to  be  blessed  through  the  family  of  faithful  Abraham  ;  the  nations 
of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed  through  the  Hebrew  nation,  thus  ele- 
vated and  sanctified  through  the  presence  of  this  indwelling  faith  and 
this  organized  Church.  Three  distinct  eras  are  traceable  in  its  career: 
the  theocratic,  the  royal,  the  prophetic. 

The  theocratic  era  extends  from  the  Exodus  to  the  crowning  of  Saul ; 
B.  C.  1491 — B.  C.  1095,  according  to  the  received  chronology.  It  in- 
cludes the  final  formulation  of  the  Mosaic  ceremonial,  the  settlement 
aud  unification  of  the  nation  in  the  promised  land,  the  irregular  dom- 
ination of  the  Judges,  and  the  peculiar  viceroyalty  of  Samuel, — a 
period  in  which  the  people  were  governed  by  direct  theocratic  revela- 
tions, coming  chiefly  through  the  priesthood.  We  behold  the  singular 
spectacle  of  a  nation  among  Avhom  the  Church  and  the  state  seem  co- 
terminous, and  civil  and  religious  law  are  identical  in  their  claim: 
among  whom  divine  authority  is  recognized  as  supreme,  and  religion  is 
enthroned  as  the  chief  social  principle.  The  people  are  seen  to  move 
and  act  as  a  manifested  Providence  directs  them;  God  is  enthroned 
as  their  chosen  and  only  King,  and  His  revealed  will  is  their  only  ac- 
cepted rule,  whether  in  tlife  state,  the  household,  or  the  individual  soul. 
Far  as  they  seem  often  to  fall  below  this  ideal,  especially  during  the 
confused  era  of  the  Judges,  the  ideal  survives,  and  continues  to  be 
as  truly  their  guide  and  inspiration  as  was  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of 
fire  during  the  Exodus.  Yet  this  condition  Avas  designed  to  be  tempo- 
rary rather  than  permanent.    As  the  tabernacle  so  carefully  constructed 

'  BoNSEN :  Hist,  of  the  people  of  Israel.  Stanley  :  Ilist.  of  the  Jewish  Church. 
See  also,  references  to  Hengstenberg,  Kurtz,  Oehler. 


28  THE   CHURCH   IN    THE   DIVINE   PLAN. 

in  the  wilderness,  and  so  faithfully  carried  with  them  during  their 
wanderings,  was  to  give  way  at  lengtli  to  the  more  glorious  temple, 
so  this  introductory  stage  in  the  national  cxi)erience  was  to  be  succeeded 
by  another  of  greater  volume  and  of  higher  significance. 

The  royal  era,  extending  from  the  crowning  of  Saul  to  the  downfall 
of  the  .Jewish  monarchy  (B.  C.  1095 — B.  C.  588)  was  such  a  period. 
It  was  not  simply  the  selection  of  a  human  king,  and  the  introduction 
of  the  splendid  age  of  David  and  Solomon,  which  distinguished  this  era. 
The  human  element  becomes  indeed  more  prominent,  but  the  divine 
supremacy  survives  in  undiminished  force.  The  tabernacle  disappears 
in  order  that  the  temple  may  rise  into  view  on  INIount  Zion.  Jerusa- 
lem becomes  both  the  political  and  the  religious  capital.  The  Mosaic 
ritual,  which  had  fallen  partly  into  disuse  during  the  troublous  times 
preceding,  is  revived  and  enforced,  with  far  greater  elaborateness  and 
splendor.  As  the  nation  rose  into  power  and  influence,  the  Church 
rose  with  it — still  the  controlling  factor  in  the  Hebrew  life.  Visions 
of  the  salvation  to  come  became  more  distinct  Avith  the  advancing  cen- 
turies, and  the  Messianic  promises  inherited  from  patriarchal  times 
found  fit  succession  in  the  Messianic  predictions  of  men  like  David  and 
Isaiah,  and  some  among  the  minor  prophets.  Even  after  the  fatal  rup- 
ture between  the  tribes,  and  the  withdrawal  of  Ephraim  from  Judah, 
the  national  faith  and  Avorship  remained ;  the  church  lived  still  as  the 
oro-anizino:  center  of  both  the  northern  and  the  southern  confedera- 
tion. 

The  prophetic  era,  reaching  from  the  captivities  to  the  birth  of  Christ, 
presents  the  singular  phenomenon  of  a  religion  surviving  amid  the  de- 
cline of  all  other  elements  in  the  Hebrew  life — of  a  Church  abiding, 
and  even  increasing  in  spiritual  quality  and  influence,  while  the  state 
that  had  hitherto  nourished  and  protected  it  was  passing  into  decay. 
For  some  centuries  prior  to  the  carrying  of  Zedekiah  and  his  people  to 
Babylon,  Avhile  the  power  of  the  ritual  and  the  priest  were  waning, 
God  had  been  raising  up  a  succession  of  prophets  to  whom  the  care  of 
this  church  was  to  be  specially  entrusted,  and  by  Avhom  the  church  Avas 
to  be  trained  into  higher  ethical  experiences,  and  prepared  for  the 
more  spiritual  economy  that  was  to  folloAV.  It  Avas  not  the  divine  plan 
that  the  church  should  die  out  with  the  nation ;  rather  AA'as  it  planned 
that  the  nation  as  a  containing  vessel  should  be  broken  into  fragments, 
in  order  that  the  church  might  strike  out  its  roots  into  surrounding 
soil,  and  might  grow  into  its  predestined  universality.  The  peculiar 
function  of  the  prophets  Avas  not  merely  to  enforce  the  ritualistic  cultus 
rejiresented  by  the  priesthood ;  it  was  to  bring  out  more  fully  the  spir- 
itual truths  and  duties  Avhich  that  cultus  typified.  It  was  to  preserve 
and  mature  the  religious  principle  in  a  better  form ;  to  enforce  obliga- 


THE   CHURCH   AS   CONSTITUTED   BY   CHRIST.  29 

tion  more  thoroughly  and  widely — to  bring  the  soul  nearer  to  God 
through  deeper  experience.  They  were  also  to  reveal  more  distinctly 
the  coming  redemption,  and  to  describe  in  clearer  terms  the  approach- 
ing Iledeemer;  and  thus  to  bring  in,  amid  the  overthrow  of  earthly  in- 
terests and  hopes,  the  strong  inspiration  to  be  derived  from  this  new 
manifestation  of  the  Christ  by  whom  life  and  immortality  were  to  be 
brought  to  light.  It  is  an  error  therefore  to  regard  the  prophetic  era 
as  a  descent  from  the  elevation  which  the  Hebrew  faith  had  attained 
under  David  and  Solomon.  The  Hebraic  dispensation  was  in  no  sense 
a  failure.  Closer  study  reveals  the  interesting  fact  of  a  steady  advance, 
along  the  lines  of  a  truly  spiritual  development,  from  Mount  Sinai  to 
Mount  Zion,  from  the  tabernacle  to  the  temple,  from  the  splendors  of 
an  external  worship  to  the  better  experiences  flowing  from  a  deepened 
religious  life,  and  from  the  priestly  and  the  kingly  down  to  and  through 
the  prophetic  discipline.  The  theocratic  era  prepared  the  way  for  the 
royal,  and  this  in  turn  prepared  the  way  for  the  period  during  which 
the  outer  shell  of  faith  fell  oft",  and  the  essential  principle  of  faith  ger- 
minated into  form  and  beauty,  by  way  of  preparation  for  the  advent 
of  a  Savior  and  a  religion  wherein  the  Patriarchal  and  the  Hebraic 
churches  were  to  find  their  final  and  perfect  realization. 

IX.  The  Church  as  Constituted  by  Christ  :  Preliminary  Re- 
marks.— As  the  religious  life  flows  gradually  through  the  individual 
into  the  family,  the  tribe  and  the  nation — as  the  discipline  of  the  the- 
ocracy introduces  the  further  development  of  the  royal  era,  and  pre- 
pares the  Avay  for  the  riper  experience  of  prophetical  times,  so  the  entire 
history  of  the  Church  from  its  earliest  beginnings,  and  during  all  its 
varied  forms,  must  be  regarded  as  a  vast  divine  preparation  for  the 
church  that  was  to  follow,— the  Church  Universal,  constituted  by  our 
Lord  Himself.  The  rites  and  ceremonies,  regulations  and  duties  im- 
posed during  these  antecedent  stages  were  not  only  fitted  to  develop 
true  piety  in  those  who  observed  them ;  they  were  also  designed  to  be 
typical  of  the  more  thorough  spiritual  culture  which  the  Gospel  was  to 
introduce.  They  were  so  many  seeds  divinely  planted,  that  in  due 
season  they  might  spring  forth  into  maturity  under  the  fairer  light  of 
the  new  economy — the  economy  of  the  Immanuel.  As  every  thing  that 
was  permanently  valuable  in  the  patriarchal  period  was  carried  over 
into  the  Hebrew  discipline,  so  all  of  permanent  spiritual  value  in  He- 
braism passed  naturally,  after  a  sanctifying  process,  into  the  better, 
broader,  spiritual  organism  that  was  to  succeed  it. 

The  comparative  silence  of  Christ  respecting  the  constitution,  the 
forms  and  usages,  of  the  Church  which  it  was  a  part  of  His  mission  to 
found,  is  significant.  While  He  announces  the  fact  that  such  a  Church 
was  to  be  a  direct  outgrowth  of  His  redemptive  work,  its  particular 


30  THE  CHURCH  in  thi:  divine  plan. 

construction  seems  to  be  to  his  view  incidental.  He  indeed  endorses  or 
institutes  the  two  great  Christian  sacraments ;  He  points  out  certain  es- 
sential principles  in  church  fellowship  and  church  disci})line ;  He  indi- 
cates the  foundations  of  divine  doctrine  on  which  the  Church  must  be 
built — Himself  the  chief  corner-stone.  Beyond  this  He  is  silent.  How- 
is  that  sacred  silence  to  be  explained,  excepting  on  the  hypothesis  that 
He  foresaw  on  one  side,  that  mere  forms  or  constitutions,  however  rig- 
idly enjcMued,  would  avail  nothing  apart  from  true  piety  dwelling  in 
the  heart;  and  on  the  other  side,  that  such  piety,  awakened  and  ma- 
tured through  Him,  would  be  sure  to  lead  the  Church  into  appropriate 
rules  and  usages,  and  would  make  it  prosperous  and  fruitful  under 
whatever  mode  of  organization  ?  To  introduce  such  a  gracious  economy 
as  He  came  to  establish,  by  planting  everywhere  another  Church  in 
avowed  rivalry  with  the  existing  Judaism,  would  have  frustrated  His 
supreme  purpose ;  to  bring  in  His  Church  through  the  antecedent  pro- 
cesses involved  in  the  new  life  He  imparted,  letting  the  organization 
follow  after  the  piety  that  required  it,  was  both  profoundly  philosojihic 
in  itself,  and  a  sure  pledge  of  ultimate  success. 

The  same  divine  principle  clearly  regulates  the  Apostolic  teaching. 
In  the  minds  of  those  Avho  organized  the  new  Church  under  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Spirit,  particular  rules  and  usages,  methods  of  organization, 
varieties  of  constitution,  seem  to  have  had  but  secondary  place.  They, 
like  their  Master,  dwelt  most  upon  individual  piety  ;  they  sought  most 
the  cultivation  of  those  holy  graces,  of  which  Christian  fellowship, 
Christian  communion,  were  to  be  the  certain  outgrowth.  Religion  was 
first,  and  the  Church  was  in  order  to  religion ;  the  Church  never  be- 
came prior  in  their  scheme  of  development.  Nor  did  they  organize  the 
Church  according  to  their  own  opinions ;  every  thing  was  carefully  sub- 
ordinated to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  and  to  the  supreme  direction  of 
His  Spirit.  The  impression  that  Paul  rather  than  Christ  was  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  the  kindred  impression  that  Paul 
and  Peter  or  James  were  at  variance  in  their  theories  of  organization, 
and  therefore  founded  Pauline  churches  on  Gentile,  and  Petrine  or 
Jacobean  churches  on  Jewish  soil — thus  introducing  antagonism  into 
the  very  structure  of  primitive  Christianity,  can  not  be  justified  by  any 
clear  evidence  drawn  either  from  the  apostolic  writings  or  from  the 
records  of  the  apostolic  age.  Nor  can  it  be  affirmed  that  one  rigid  form 
was  agreed  upon  by  those  who  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Church,  to 
be  exactly  followed  through  the  long  and  complex  process,  continued 
during  the  first  century,  of  planting  particular  organizations  of  believ- 
ers in  the  various  portions  of  the  known  world.  What  degree  of 
special  Avarrant  for  any  variety  of  such  organization  above  another,  can 
be  derived  from  the  New  Testament,  may  be  shown  hereafter ;  for  the 


IDENTITY   WITH  PATRIARCHAL   AND   HEBRAIC   CHURCHES.  31 

present,  it  is  important   simply  to  recognize    the  general  fact   here 
stated. 

X.  Its  Identity  avith  the  Patriarchal  and  Hebraic  Chltiches. 
— It  is  essential  to  note  in  brief  the  several  points  of  identity  between 
the  Church  thus  founded  by  Christ  and  His  apostles,  and  the  Churches 
Patriarchal  and  Hebraic — especially  the  latter.  To  regard  these  as  in- 
dependent organizations,  having  only  certain  general  relations  and  re- 
semblances, is  to  misapprehend  entirely  their  true  affinity — to  ignore 
their  essential  oneness.  This  oneness  is  repeatedly  declared  in  the  New 
Testament ;  both  by  our  Lord,  as  in  Luke  1 :  32-^3,  Matt.  22 :  43-45 ; 
and  by  the  apostles,  as  in  Rom.  11:  17-26,  Eph.  2:  11-22,  3:  4-6.  To 
use  the  metaphor  of  Paul,  the  Christian  Church  was  grafted  upon  the 
Jewish,  in  such  a  sense  that  both  the  original  stock  and  the  growing 
graft  became  one  and  the  same  tree.  This  oneness  is  further  indicated 
in  the  fact  that  prophecies  given  to  the  Church  in  its  earlier  stages  are 
realized  only  under  the  Gospel,  such  as  those  Avhich  brighten  so  singu- 
larly the  latest  chapters  of  Isaiah.  And  by  the  kindred  fact  that  prom- 
ises made  to  the  people  of  God  under  the  earlier  dispensation  are  ful- 
filled only  after  Christ  had  wrought  out  His  redemptive  work ;  illustra- 
tions maybe  seen  in  Acts  2  :  16-18,  39,  Gal.  3:  7-9,  28-29.  The  O. 
T.  prophecies  nowhere  suggested  the  ultimate  destruction  of  the  He- 
braic Church,  but  rather  its  expansion  through  the  admission  of  the 
Gentiles,  in  exact  harmony  with  the  event.  We  have  also  abundant 
evidence  that  the  Hebrew  Church  rested,  like  the  Christian,  on  Christ 
Himself  as  its  true  corner-stone ;  Rom,  4:  9-25,  Gal.  3:  16.  The  Mes- 
sianic assurances  Avhich  had  sustained  believers  even  from  the  times  of 
Noah  or  of  Adam,  and  which  had  been  inherited  by  the  children  of 
Israel,  and  interpreted  through  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  system,  all  found 
their  final  key  and  fulfillment  in  Him.  Moreover,  as  the  foundation  was 
essentially  the  same,  the  uniting  bond  of  faith,  loyalty,  devotion,  was  sub- 
stantially one  in  the  antediluvian  patriarch,  in  the  Jewish  saint,  and  in 
the  Christian  disciple.  Piety  is  but  one  divine  growth,  under  whatever 
sky;  and  piety  varying  in  grade  and  manifestation,  but  the  same  in  sub- 
stance, was  in  all  dispensations  the  one  animating  principle.  More 
specifically,  there  are  many  constitutional  as  well  as  spiritual  lineaments, 
wherein  this  essential  unity  may  be  traced  and  illustrated ;  studying  the 
old,  we  see  the  new  imbedded  in  it — studying  the  new,  we  discern  at 
many  points  the  familiar  features  of  the  old. 

This  identity  is  sometimes  urged  and  sometimes  questioned,  for  the 
special  reason  that  it  is  supposed  to  justify — if  it  be  established — the 
baptism  of  children  under  the  Gospel,  as  a  counterpart  to  circumcision 
under  the  Mosaic  economy.  The  same  tendency  is  manifested  in  con- 
nection with  certain  questions  at  issue  between  Romanists  and  Protest- 


32  THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   BIVIXE    PLAN. 

ants,  and  anion:;  Protestants  themselves,  respecting  church  organiza- 
tion. But  \\  liatever  may  be  judged  to  be  the  bearings  of  the  general 
fact  on  any  particular  issue  such  as  these,  is  it  not  clear  that  no  Christian 
can  afford  to  deny  or  to  disparage  this  sacred  oneness?  The  practical 
alternative  is  to  regard  the  first  and  second  forms  of  church  life  as 
failures,  whereas  in  fact  both  are  taken  up  and  spiritualized,  and  made 
essential  parts  of  the  perfected  Church  under  the  Gospel.  The  economy 
of  redemi)tion  is  successful  at  each  stage,  and  the  transition  from  stage 
to  stage  is  to  be  viewed  only  as  a  gracious  development, — first  the  blade, 
then  the  ear,  and  finally  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  All  believers  are 
alike  bound  to  hold  and  teach,  whatever  its  bearing  on  specific  issues, 
that  the  Church  of  God  on  earth  is  but  One  Church  ;  the  Bible  justifies 
no  other  judgment. 

XL  Important  Points  of  Contrast  Noted. — But  while  Scrip- 
ture teaches  this  essential  oneness,  it  also  brings  into  view  some  coun- 
terbalancing contrasts  by  which  the  Christian  organization  is  forever 
broadly  distinguished  from  its  predecessors.  First  of  all,  we  behold  in 
Christ  and  His  mediatorial  work  the  fulfillment  of  the  types,  promises, 
prophecies,  given  to  the  earlier  Church, — a  fulfillment  which  involves 
th&  retirement  forever  of  what  was  typical  and  introductory  in  these 
antecedent  dispensations.  There  was  no  longer  a  Savior  to  come,  to  be 
contemplated  through  the  glass  of  prophecy,  and  to  be  hoped  for  and 
prayed  for  by  believing  souls.  Type  and  prediction  were  gloriously 
fulfilled  in  a  present  Shiloh,  a  present  Christ. — In  like  manner,  the  sac- 
rifices of  patriarchs,  the  entire  ceremonial  cultus  of  the  Hebrews, 
precious  though  they  had  been  as  aids  to  personal  faith,  were  of  no 
further  spiritual  value,  since  the  great  offering  had  once  for  all  been 
made.  In  the  presence  of  the  Gospel,  Mosaism  Avas  no  longer  needful, 
and  was  therefore  finally  retired ;  the  schoolmaster  had  led  men  to  the 
historic  Christ,  and  his  mission  was  therefore  ended.  Law  was  not  to 
be  abrogated ;  it  was  rather  to  be  taken  up  into  the  higher  economy  of 
grace,  and  to  become  a  law  of  life  rather  than  a  commandment  unto 
death.  In  every  prominent  aspect,  the  peculiarities  of  the  antecedent 
discipline  of  the  people  of  God  were  thus  to  be  transmuted  by  the 
touch  of  Christ,  and  made  available  and  efficacious  in  conjunction  with 
His  scheme  of  saving  grace. 

It  is  obvious  also  that  personal  religion,  in  forms  more  spiritual  and 
exalted — a  t}'pe  or  measure  of  piety  such  as  the  Hebrew  had  but 
dimly  known,  and  such  as  our  Lord  himself  came  in  part  to  illustrate, 
was  to  be  a  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Christian  Cliurch.  It  was  in- 
deed the  faith  of  Abraham  which  the  disciple  of  Christ  was  to  cherish ; 
but  it  was  the  Abrahamic  faith,  broadened  in  its  range,  for  more  pow- 
erful in  its  action,  and  more  controlling  and  spiritualizing  in  its  eflfect 


IMPORTANT  POINTS  OF  CONTRAST,  33 

on  character.  While  the  same  principle  of  obedience  was  to  be  recog- 
nized, that  obedience  was  to  be  ennobled  throughout  by  the  mighty 
impulses  of  holy  love  enkindled  by  personal  contact  with  a  living  Re- 
deemer. The  Christian  manhood  Avas  to  be  of  a  higher  type,  having 
a  completer  structure  and  efficiency,  than  the  patriarchal  or  the  Jewish. 
And  in  conjunction  with  this  fresh  development  of  gracious  character, 
all  domestic,  tribal,  national  barriers  were  to  be  broken  down,  and  the 
Church  of  God,  thus  endowed  inwardly,  was  to  go  forth  on  a  mission  to 
all  tribes  and  races — to  preach  this  perfected  Gospel  to  every  creature. 
The  set  time  had  now  come  for  a  world-wide  development.  The  Mes- 
siah had  come  to  humanity;  and  His  Church  w^as  to  be  made  universal. 
The  restrictions  of  Judaism  were  no  longer  needful,  and  Avere  therefore 
thrown  aside.  The  true  religion  had  now  taken  on  its  final  form ;  and 
the  way  was  open  for  its  implantation  in  all  lands. 

The  student  of  Ecclesiology  can  not  too  carefully  consider  this  gra- 
cious evolution,  as  it  goes  on  from  stage  to  stage  until  it  attains  its 
present  degree  of  completeness.  Close  examination  will  show  him  how 
compactly  joined  together  the  divine  process  is  at  each  historic  transi- 
tion ; — it  will  reveal  to  him  the  true  relationship  of  much  that  may 
otherwise  seem  fragmentary  or  extraneous ;  it  will  give  new  meaning  to 
the  older  Scriptures  at  a  thousand  points,  and  serve  to  bind  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New,  the  various  ceremonies,  the  complex  aggregate 
of  type  and  ritual  and  promise,  into  one  superhuman  and  sublime  unity. 
He  will  find  the  incarnate  Christ  not  only  explaining  and  illuminating 
all  the  past,  even  from  the  antediluvian  or  the  Mosaic  era,  but  giving 
meaning  and  grandeur  to  all  that  the  Christian  Church  is,  or  is  to  be- 
come. That  Church  is  the  complete  Body,  of  which  this  historic  Christ 
is  ever  the  divine  and  glorious  Head.  ^ 

XII.  General  Argument  for  the  Church  :  Several  Sections. 
— This  brief  outline  of  the  divine  idea  of  the  Church,  as  that  idea  has 
been  unfolded  in  history,  furnishes  of  itself  a  distinct  justification  of 
the  remarkable  organism  thus  sketched.  The  simple  existence  of  such 
an  organism,  through  so  long  a  period,  in  such  varied  and  impressive 
forms,  and  in  such  relations  to  religion,  becomes  a  sufficient  explana- 
tion and  defence.  Yet  it  may  be  of  service  to  note,  at  this  stage,  the 
general  lines  of  argument  by  which  such  a  divine  construction  as  this 
is  justified.  Let  it  be  observed  that  the  question  here  suggested  has 
no  reference  to  the  inquiry  whether  any  specific  church  or  denomina- 
tion has  a  right  to  exist,  or  whether  either  of  these  three  economic  forms 
described  as  Patriarchal  or  Hebraic  or  Christian,  can  show  just  grounds 
for  its  particular  existence.     The  present  inquiry  relates  only  to  the  one 

'Van  Oosteezee:  Theol.  of  the  New  Test.,  Sect.  41.    Bernard,  Progress  of  Doct. 

in  N.  T. :  pp.  203-207. 


34  THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   DIVINE   PLAN. 

Church  of  God  on  earth,  whether  past  or  present  or  future.  Is  this 
singular  organism  a  liuman  or  a  divine  construction — does  it  exist  by 
human  or  divine  authority?^  Is  it  some  temporary  adjunct  of  religion, 
of  relatively  slight  importance,  and  likely  to  be  outgrown  with  time; 
or  has  it  a  permanent  place  in  the  very  structure  of  the  true  religion, 
and  therefore  an  enduring  life,  and  a  full  justification  both  in  the 
human  needs  to  which  it  ministers,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  divine 
faith  to  which  it  is  made  accessory? 

In  asking  Avhether  the  Church  of  God  ought  to  be,  we  contemplate 
something  more  than  the  Church  invisible — the  spiritual  body  of 
Christ,  made  up  of  all  who  have  ever  believed  on  Him,  and  unified  by 
the  possession  of  religious  life  through  Him,  yet  held  together  by  no 
external  constitutiou.  This  invisible  Church  has  always  tended  to  as- 
sume visible  forms,  and  has  existed  in  the  world  at  every  stage  within 
some  species  of  outward  organization.  It  is  therefore  the  visible  Church 
as  thus  organized,  standing  out  in  the  life  of  humanity  as  distinctly  as 
the  family  or  the  state, — the  Church  of  God,  clad  in  these  visibilities, 
and  acting  organically  under  divine  commission  upon  the  religious  na- 
ture and  destinies  of  man — concerning  which  the  present  inquiry  is 
proposed.  Four  lines  of  evidence,  separate  in  form,  but  cumulative  in 
their  pressure  and  result,  may  be  considered : 

1.  The  Church  constructively  in  the  religious  Nature. — The  Church,  as 
thus  defined,  lies  constructively  in  the  very  nature  of  man  as  a  religious 
being.  We  recognize  it  as  a  valid  plea  for  the  existence  of  the  family 
and  the  state,  that  the  nature  of  man,  domestic  on  the  one  side  and 
social  or  political  on  the  other,  demands  them.  These  two  primordial 
institutions  have  their  foundations  in  the  universal  needs  of  the  race ; 
man  can  not  reach  the  proper  consummation  of  his  being  and  his  hap- 
piness without  their  aid.  There  may  be  defects  or  blemishes  in  the  do- 
mestic life  of  individual  men,  which  render  the  particular  household 
inadequate  to  satisfy  this  personal  want ;  there  may  be  communities  or 
tribes  in  which  the  fixmily  tie  is  not  duly  honored  or  enjoyed ;  yet  the 
family  as  an  institution  survives  through  all  such  adverse  experiences, 
as  something  no  less  enduring  than  humanity.  In  like  manner,  though 
governments  often  fail  to  meet  their  appointed  ends,  and  though  revo- 
lutions sometimes  subvert  constitutions  or  dynasties,  still  the  state 
survives,  the  world  over,  as  an  indispensable  adjunct  of  healthful  civ- 
ilization.     Like  the  family,  it  lives  on  through  all  changes  of  form, 

'  "  I  define  a  Church  to  be  a  company  of  men,  professing  the  Cliristian  religion, 
united  in  the  person  of  one  sovereign,  at  whose  command  they  ought  to  assem- 
ble, and  without  whoso  aiithority  they  ought  not  to  assemble."  Hobbes,  Levi- 
athan, Part  III.    Of  a  Christian  Commonwealth j  Ch.  XXIX. 


OUR  EELIGIOUS   NATURE   EEQUFRES   THE   CHURCH.  35 

because  it  is  demanded  by  one  of  the  deepest,  most  pervasive  and  most 
powerful  instincts  of  mankind. 

That  man  has  a  religious  as  well  as  a  domestic  or  a  social  or  political 
nature,  will  not  be  questioned  by  any  thoughtful  student.  The  uni- 
versality of  religion  in  the  world,  the  number  and  variety  of  the  nat- 
ural faiths,  the  multiplied  modes  of  worship,  the  costly  sacrifices  and 
temjiles,  the  priestly  orders,  the  struggles  of  sects  and  schools,  the 
rivalries  of  beliefs,  the  conflicts  of  men  and  nations  around  religious 
issues,  and  other  like  phenomena,  leave  no  room  for  doubt  on  this 
point.  Nor  can  it  be  questioned  that  the  religious  instinct  in  mankind 
is  as  powerful  as  it  is  universal ;  in  fact,  it  stands  well-nigh  first  among 
the  most  potential  impulses  at  work  in  the  experience  and  life  of  the 
race.  But  religion,  even  in  its  natural  forms,  is  always  a  social  and 
associating  instinct.  Though  faiths  visibly  opposite  sometimes  lead  men 
into  bitter  antagonism,  adherents  of  the  same  faith  are  always  spon- 
taneously drawn  together  by  their  conscious  unity  in  belief.  While 
nothing  segregates  more  quickly  than  religion,  nothing  more  quickly 
associates,  aflSliates,  unifies.  Even  where  geographic  or  other  natural 
lines  of  distinction  would  keep  men  separate,  this  sense  of  oneness  in 
the  gratification  of  so  profound  a  principle  brings  them  together  above 
all  differences,  in  conscious  and  even  loviug  communion.  And  this  is 
eminently  true  of  that  type  of  religious  life  which  God  Himself  has 
directly  implanted  among  men.  There  are  defective  conceptions  or 
modes  of  piety  which  lead  individuals  to  separate  themselves  from  their 
fellows,  as  in  monastic  seclusion ;  but  a  healthful  piety  of  the  biblical 
type  tends  spontaneously  to  fellowship — it  finds  its  best  nutrition  and 
strength  and  blessedness  in  communion.  The  history  of  the  true  peoj^le 
of  God  in  all  ages  illustrates  this  proposition. 

Hence  the  existence  in  all  lands  and  times  of  religious  associations, 
representing  this  deep  yearning  of  human  nature.  In  connection  Avith 
even  the  lowest  types  of  natural  religion,  we  discern  what  may  properly 
be  described  as  crude  suggestions  or  imitations  of  what  we  behold  in  its 
fullness  in  the  Church.  Family  union,  tribal  fellowship,  even  national 
organization  of  this  sort,  spring  up  freely  as  by  some  universal  law 
wherever  religion  in  any  form  exists.  As  these  faiths  become  more 
complex  and  elaborate,  and  are  more  widely  diffused,  this  power  to 
combine  their  adherents  in  visible  association  becomes  more  and  more 
effective.  And  wherever  biblical  piety  exists,  this  tendency  manifests 
itself  with  peculiar  intensity.  Family  altars  are  builded  ;  households 
and  tribes  are  welded  together  by  spiritual  as  well  as  natural  affinities ; 
organizations  spring  into  being,  and  visible  membership  becomes  a  per- 
sonal badge  and  privilege.  The  sense  of  religious  affiliation  becomes  * 
an  informing  principle,  a  controlling  law,  expressing  itself  in  visible 


36  TIIK   CHURCH   IN    TIIIC   DIVINE   PLAN. 

communion  and  in  enduring  association.  The  Church,  in  a  word,  is 
the  direct  outgrowth  of  this  vital  tendency ;  it  lies  constructively  in  the 
very  nature  of  man  as  a  religious  being.  And  wherever  .scrii)tural 
piety  prevails,  the  Church  springs  consequently  into  existence  by  a 
necessity  as  real  as  that  which  creates  everywhere  the  state  or  the 
family.  ^ 

2.  lieUgion  as  an  experience  requires  the  Church. — The  nature  of  re- 
ligion, viewed  as  an  experience,  requires  such  an  organization  in  order 
to  its  proper  development.  As  an  experience,  religion  in  the  biblical 
sense  may  be  contemplated  in  tliis  connection  as  l)oth  an  inspiration 
and  a  discipline  or  cultus.  On  the  one  side,  piety  enters  into  the  soul 
of  man  as  a  sublime  force,  awakening  new  thoughts  and  convictions, 
stirring  the  spiritual  sensibilities  into  action,  impelling  the  will  to  fresh 
activity  along  higher  lines,  and  filling  the  moral  nature  throughout 
with  a  nobler,  grander  life.  The  true  religion  infuses  another  spirit 
into  him  Avho  receives  it,  makes  him  a  new  man  in  respect  to  all  moral 
quality  and  relation,  is  enthroned  in  him  henceforth  as  a  heavenly  in- 
spiration. And  in  that  inspiration  the  central  element  is  love, — love 
to  God,  and  love  to  man,  supplanting  all  selfish  isolation  or  discord,  and 
uniting  its  possessor  in  dear  and  everlasting  union  with  all  who  truly 
cherish  the  same  holy  feeling. — On  the  other  side,  piety  comes  into  the 
soul  as  a  new  and  higher  law — a  more  effective  moral  regimen  or  cultus. 
The  inspiration  it  first  imparts,  it  immediately  begins  to  regulate  and 
control  for  useful  ends.  It  sets  itself  up  as  a  holy  principle,  to  be  hence- 
forth obeyed — obeyed  absolutely  and  for  evermore.  It  enters  at  once 
into  the  practical  life  of  man;  it  places  an  intelligent,  rectified  will  on 
the  throne,  and  aims  to  bring  all  the  spii'itualized  activities  into  con. 
formity  Avith  the  behests  of  duty.  As  love  is  the  inspiring  principle, 
obedience  is  the  regulating  rule.  Hence  religion  becomes  a  holy  cultus, 
a  blessed  discipline  througliout,  whereby  the  soul  is  brought  at  length 
into  that  perfect  union  with  God  which  the  very  term  so  hapi:)ily 
suggests. 

Is  it  not  easy  to  see  how  essential  at  many  points  the  Church  is,  as  a 
help  iu  the  development  and  culture  of  a  true  religious  inspiration? 
AVe  may  take  the  central  element  of  love  as  an  illustration  here.  It 
is  a  familiar  law  of  our  emotional  nature,  that  positive  sensibility  can 
thrive  Avithin  the  soul  only  through  the  aid  of  appropriate  spheres  and 
modes  of  expression.  The  affection  of  the  mother  requires  a  child,  on 
which  it  can  grow  strong  by  lavishing  itself;  the  sentiment  of  patriot- 
ism can  not  exist  in  one  who  was  born  and  lives  solely  on  the  ocean. 

*  "Tlic  religious  principle,  when  sound  and  living,  has  in  itself  an  assimilat- 
ing and  associating  character  (quality).  It  binds  not  merely  man  to  God;  but 
also  men  to  each  other." — Van  Oosterzee,  Christian  Dogm.,  Sec.  128. 


THE   CHURCH   AND   RELIGIOUS   EXPERIENCE.  87 

Thus,  pious  love,  as  cherished  toward  God,  both  recognizes  Him  as  its 
object,  aud  grows  into  vigor  only  as  it  expresses  itself  in  affectionate 
allegiance  and  worship.  Holy  devotion,  loyal  service,  are  the  primary 
forms  in  which  such  love  finds  voice  and  volume.  But  the  disposition 
to  worship  and  to  serve  is  not  an  isolating  tendency.  It  blooms  most 
freely  under  the  stimulations  of  holy  example  and  holy  fellowship. 
Herein  lies  the  value  of  family  religion,  of  social  religious  activities, 
and  of  the  combined  and  swelling  chorus  of  adoration  in  the  sanctuary. 
And  the  Church,  in  a  word,  fills  just  here  a  special,  an  indispensable 
place  in  the  religious  life ;  it  furnishes  a  broad  sphere  in  which  this  sen- 
timent of  love  toward  God,  expressed  in  both  worship  and  service,  can 
act  itself  out  most  effectively. 

In  like  manner  the  Church  supplies  the  external  conditions  essential 
to  the  full  development  of  love  toward  man.  Viewed  in  relation  to 
the  world,  this  divine  organism  becomes  the  living  embodiment  of  the 
sentiment  of  brotherhood — the  fine  sense  of  humanity.  It  is  the  chief 
agency  through  Avhich  Christian  love  can  reach  and  help  the  sinful,  the 
suffering,  the  lost.  It  is  the  appropriate  center  of  all  holy  activities 
which  have  for  their  object  the  spiritual,  and  even  the  temporal  wel- 
fare of  mankind.  Considering  on  the  other  hand,  the  relation  of  be- 
lievers to  each  other,  we  see  at  once  that  the  sacred  Caritas  of  the  Gos- 
pel could  not  well  exist  without  such  provision,  sphere,  opportunity,  as 
the  Church  supplies.  If  there  were  no  such  thing  as  practical  fellow- 
ship within  this  hallowed  circle — no  mutual  friendships,  no  compan- 
ionship in  labor,  no  sympathy  in  trial  or  sorrow, — how  dw'arfed  the 
sentiment  of  brotherhood  in  Christ  would  become,  and  how  much 
narrower  would  be  the  range  alike  of  Christian  enjoyment,  and  of 
Christian  growth ! 

What  is  true  respecting  religion  as  an  inspiration,  is  no  less  apparent 
if  we  regard  it  as  a  holy  cultus  or  discipline.  How  obviously  does  the 
principle  of  obedience,  like  the  sentiment  of  love,  need  just  such  sphere 
and  occasion  as  the  Church  supplies!  In  how  many  beautiful  ways 
Avithin  the  household  of  faith,  is  the  soul  trained  to  service  and  drilled 
in  duty !  What  higher,  more  practical  incentives  are  brought  to  bear 
upon  it  there,  to  make  it  more  pi'ompt,  more  ardent,  more  effective,  in 
the  discharge  of  religious  obligation !  Plow  much  are  the  sense  of  loy- 
alty, the  principle  of  service,  the  capacity  and  disposition  of  the  disciple 
to  be  useful,  increased  through  the  influence  of  such  examples  as  the 
Church  produces !  In  a  word,  we  have  abundant  evidence  that  religion 
as  an  experience  could  not  be  matured  either  as  a  glowing  inspiration  or 
as  a  divine  discipline,  if  there  were  no  such  organism  as  this  to  supply 
it  sphere  and  culture.  And  while  the  Church  answers,  as  Ave  have 
seen,  to  the  instinctive  demands  of  human  nature  viewed  as  religious,  it 


38  THE   CriUECfl   IN   THE   DIVINE    I'EAN. 

also  justifies  its  peculiar  place  in  history  by  these  unique  ministrations 
to  the  religious  life.  What  the  devout  nature  needs,  the  holy  life  in 
the  pious  soul  still  further  demands. 

3.    ReUijion  perpetuated  and  advanced  thwiujh  the  Church. — Contemplat- 
ing the  Church  more  broadly  as  the  representative  of  piety  in  human 
society,  wc  discover  still  further  reason  for  its  continuous  existence. — 
First  of  all,  it  is  through  this  divine  organism  that  religion  is  chiefly 
perpetuated  in  the  world.     Believers  die  out  from  life ;  and  so  far  as 
they  are  concerned,  apart  from  the  memory  of  their  faith,  religion  dies 
with  them.     Generations  perish ;  and  the  piety  of  one  generation  can 
live  in  the  next  only  as  it  is  by  some  appropriate  means  transmitted. 
And  in  such  transmission  the  force  of  parental  example,  the  influence 
of  a  godly  ancestry,  though  inestimably  precious,  are  not  sufficient. 
God  therefore   does  not  rely  exclusively  on   the  law  of  perpetuation 
through  personal  or  through  social  influence.      In  order  that  religion 
may  abide  permanently  in  the  earth.  He  prefers  to  crystallize  it  in  in- 
stitutions, such  as  the  pious  family  and  eminently  the  devout  Church. 
In  other  words,  He  organizes  piety  within  His  chosen  household  of 
faith,  and  thus  enables  it  to  maintain  its  place  and  power  imperishably 
among  men.     In  His  great  purpose,  the  Church  thus  stands  forth,  age 
after  age,  as  one    of  the  indestructible   things   in   human  life;    and 
while  the  Church  thus  stands,  the  religion  which  the  Church  represents, 
must  survive,  even  down  to  millennial  times.  ^ 

This  divine  organism  sustains  a  like  relation  to  the  diffusion  and 
advancement  of  piety  among  men.  If  the  true  faith  is  yet  to  be  re- 
ceived by  all  mankind — if  the  world  is  to  become  holy,  as  Scripture 
definitely  teaches,  we  readily  perceive  that  this  mighty  task  must  be 
carried  forward  through  the  most  effective  agencies  which  God  Him- 
self can  command.  Such  a  work  can  not  be  safely  left  to  individual 
effort,  or  to  the  joint  activities  of  any  single  generation,  even  under  the 
impulse  of  an  inspiring,  comprehensive  charity.  It  is  a  work  which 
transient  individuals,  evanescent  generations,  left  to  themselves,  could 
never  prosecute  efficiently ;  it  is  a  work  which  God  only  can  properly 
conduct  and  consummate,  through  such  instrumentalities  as  He  only 
can  provide.  To  this  end  therefore  He  has  constituted  and  endowed 
the  Church;  assigning  to  it  directly  this  vast  task  of  discipling  the 
nations.     The  commission  is  not  given  to  His  people  individually  or 

*  "If  religion  had  not  some  external  institution,  it  would  not  liave  a  manifes- 
tation among  men  as  a  distinct,  substantive,  all-important  thing, — it  would 
appear  like  a  matter  of  private  opinion, — its  nature  and  evidence  could  scarcely 
be  made  sensible,  still  loss  prominent,  in  the  eyes  of  mankind  at  large  ;  and  the 
grand  benefits  to  he  derived  from  social  instruction  and  worship  would  be  lost." 
—Smith  J.  Pye,  Christ.  Theol,  p.  616. 


DIVINE   GLORY  MANIFEST   THROUGH   THE  CHURCH.  39 

eveu  collectively ;  it  is  given  to  them  organically,  as  one  which  can  be 
fulfilled  only  through  their  compacted  endeavor.  And  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  in  how  many  ways  the  organized  Church  is  specially  fitted  ■ 
for  such  service.  Its  ordinances  and  worship,  its  creeds  and  testimonies, 
its  spiritual  vitalities,  its  capacities  for  aggressive  operation,  all  qualify 
it  peculiarly  for  such  diffusion  as  well  as  preservation  of  the  Gospel.  Is 
it  not  difficult  indeed  to  see  how  eveu  divine  wisdom  could  have  de- 
vised a  more  effective  method — a  more  capable  instrumentality?  Is  it 
not  obvious  also  that  the  great  end  in  view  is  actually  secured,  in  ever 
enlarging  measure,  through  the  efiiciencies  of  this  peculiar  organism? 
And  have  we  not  clear  testimony  in  Scripture,  that  as  the  world  is 
finally  brought  to  Christ,  the  relations  of  the  Church  to  that  glorious 
consummation,  Avill  become  more  and  more  sublimely  apparent? 

4.  The  Divine  Glory  revealed  through  the  Church. — Still  further  argu- 
ment may  be  derived  from  the  supreme  relations  of  the  Church,  as  the 
accredited  representative  of  the  divine  glory  in  the  earth. — It  is  a 
familiar  fact  that  even  pagan  altars  and  temples  were  erected,  not 
merely  as  convenient  places  for  sacrifice  or  worship,  but  rather  as  per- 
manent memorials,  ever  witnessing  to  the  deities  to  whom  they  were 
devoted.  The  grand  temple  at  Ephesus  was  an  enduring  monument  to 
that  Diana  whom  the  Ephesians  and  the  world  were  agreed  in  worship- 
ing. The  Jewish«tabernacle,  and  afterward  the  temple,  were  erected 
largely  for  a  like  purpose.  They  stood  enduringly  befoi-e  the  people 
as  places  Avhere  God  especially  dwelt,  and  in  which  His  glory  was 
especially  revealed.  So,  from  the  earliest  times,  has  the  Church  been 
erected  and  set  up  on  high  among  men,  not  only  that  it  might  afford 
quickening  and  culture  to  the  religious  principle,  and  contribute  to  the 
preservation  and  advancement  of  that  principle  in  the  world,  but  also 
that  it  might  be  through  all  ages  an  organic  witness  and  memorial  for 
God.  There  are  two  forms  in  which  the  Church  thus  becomes  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  divine  glory,  worship  and  testimony : 

God  is  glorified  in  the  assembly  of  His  saints  in  a  form  and  degree 
beyond  what  is  possible  in  the  single  life  or  within  the  pious  household. 
The  single  life  indeed  glorifies  Him  in  its  own  especial  measure ;  and 
it  is  the  highest  attainment  and  privilege  of  the  believer  to  *be  thus 
known  and  read  of  all  as  one  who  bears  the  image  of  God.  The  pious 
household  glorifies  God  in  its  sphere,  as  often  as  the  flames  of  devotion 
are  seen  to  arise  from  the  family  altar,  and  men  catch  the  passing  fra- 
grance of  domestic  sacrifice  and  consecration.  But  there  is  something 
in  the  worship  of  the  sanctuary,  in  the  joint  adoration  of  the  Church, 
higher  and  even  more  precious  in  the  sight  of  heaven.  The  spectacle 
of  the  whole  vast  household  of  faith  throughout  the  world,  turned 
toward  God,  and  expressing  its  trust  and  love  in  the  forms  peculiar  to 


40  Tin:  ciiuiicii  i\  Tin:  divine  plan. 

itiielf,  is  the  .sublimcst  image  of  heaven  which  our  cartii  produces  ;  it 
is  the  representative  here,  under  narrower  measures  and  yet  in  essen- 
tial likeness,  of  that  unending  adoration  which  John  in  his  vision 
describes  as  the  crowning  glory  of  the  heavenly  state. — God  is  also 
glorified  by  the  testimony  which  His  Church  is  ever  bearing,  not  only 
to  the  intrinsic  worth  and  blessedness  of  religion,  but  also  to  the  infinite 
glory  of  llim  in  whom  true  religion  finds  l)oth  its  source  and  its  con- 
summation. The  individual  disciple  and  the  pious  house  alike  testify 
to  God,  and  alike  make  His  glory  manifest.  Blessed  be  His  grace  for 
the  convincing  witness  which  is  thus  continually  uttering  itself  in  holy 
lives,  in  consecrated  homes!  But  the  testimony  of  a  devout  Church 
is  both  more  diffusive  in  its  quality,  and  more  enduring  in  its  effect. 
It  is  more  than  the  aggregated  declaration  of  the  saints  who  compose 
that  witnessing  household.  An  added  strength,  a  reverberating  con- 
clusiveness, comes  from  the  combination  of  so  many  concurrent  voices 
within  the  one  organism ;  and  what  the  Church  thus  declares,  through 
its  creeds,  its  sacraments,  its  teaching  and  life,  the  world  can  not  well 
refrain  from  hearing.  And  is  not  this  one  among  the  special  consider- 
ations which  combine  to  justify  the  existence  of  that  Church ; — must 
not  an  organization  which  secures  such  an  end  so  efficiently,  have 
divine  warrant,  and  be  entitled  to  an  enduring  place  in  the  world? 

5.  Conclusion:  The  Church  is  of  God. — Grouping  .these  lines  of  evi- 
dence around  the  common  conclusion  toward  which  they  point,  we  are 
led  to  believe  that  the  Church  is  not  a  fabric  originating  in  human 
superstition,  or  a  contrivance  of  the  priesthood,  or  a  construction  of 
the  state,  as  Hobbes  affirmed.  As  an  historic  problem  simply,  it  is 
impossible  to  account  for  its  existence  on  any  such  hypothesis.  Nor  is 
it  an  accident  or  incident  in  the  development  of  piety  in  the  world — 
some  temporary  expedient  divinely  introduced  for  a  specific  end,  but 
destined  to  pass  away  with  the  particular  exigency  that  gave  it  birth. 
The  ends  which  the  Churcli  was  appointed  to  secure  are  as  universal 
and  enduring  as  are  the  demands  of  the  religious  nature — as  enduring 
and  universal  as  religious  experience.  The  Church  exists  also,  as  we 
have  seen,  because  the  perpetuation  and  advancement  of  religion  in 
human  society  require  such  an  instrumentality,  and  because  the  de- 
clarative glory  of  God  is  made  through  its  devotion  and  its  testimony 
more  luminous  and  more  convincing.  On  these  grounds  the  place 
which  the  Church  holds  in  the  Bible  is  fully  explained,  and  the  long 
and  intricate  history  of  the  Church  is  made  clear  as  the  day.  Un- 
belief can  not  question  the  right  of  such  an  organism  to  be.  ^ 

The  obligation  to  sustain  this  divine  institution  holds  therefore  a  high 
place  among  religious  duties.     The  right  of  the  Church  to  claim  visible 

'LuTHARDT,  The  Church,  p.  G6.     Also  Palmer,  Church  of  Christ,  Vol.  1 :  p.  7. 


THE  IMPERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE   CHURCH.  41 

and  hearty  allegiance  from  all  jiious  souls,  and  to  command  their  sup- 
port in  every  practicable  way,  is  placed  beyond  question.     The  opposi- 
tion in  which  inconsiderate  or  willful  minds  indulge,  is  sinful.    Indiffer- 
ence to  this   fundamental  claim,  or  to  any  of  the  particular  services 
implied  in  it,  is  hardly  less  sinful  in  the  sight  of  Him  by  whom  the 
Church  has  been  in  every  age  and  dispensation  maintained  as  one  of 
the  three  primordial  institutions  in  human  life.     The  special  dtity  of 
sustaining  this  sacred  institution  by  our  gifts  as  well  as  by  active  effort 
in    its  behalf,    is   clearly  enjoined   in    Scripture.     The    contributions 
received  from  the  Israelites  for  the  erection  of  the  tabernacle  (Ex.  35: 
20-30,  Numb.  7:)  and  afterwards  of  the  temple  (1  Chron.  29:  6-9) 
and  the  tithing  required  for  the  support  of  the  priesthood  (Numb.  18  r 
20-24,  Heb.  7 :  5,)  in  addition  to  the  large  expenditures  involved  in 
the  maintenance  of  the  sacrificial  system,  as  illustrated  in  1  Kings  8 : 
62-66,  2  Chron.  7 :  5-7,  all  show  how  decisively  this  duty  was  enforced 
under  the  Mosaic  economy.     Under  the  Gospel  the  same  obligation  is 
enjoined  in  many  ways ;  not  only  in  contributions  to  the  needy  saints, 
or  in  the  sharing  of  goods  in  common,  and  the  devotion  of  property 
to  the  benefit  of  the  Church,   but  also  in  the  special  support  of  those 
called  to  fill  the  ministerial,  or  any  other  kindred  office.     The  earnest 
claim  of  Paul,  as  to  his  support  of  himself  at  a  certain  period  in  his 
apostolate  (1   Cor.   9:  7-18)   is  itself  strong  proof  of  the  recognition 
among  the  churches  of  this  general  obligation.     Furthermore,  we  may 
see  in  the  vast  expenditure  for  temples,  sacrifices,  priests,  required  by 
some  of  the  great  natural  religions,  a  distinct  though  it  be  erroneous 
illustration  of  the  broad  principle  incorporated  thus  in  the  true  faith; 
that  the  maintenance  of  the  Church,  in  the  discharge  of  its  vital  func- 
tions in  the  sphere  of  religion,  is  a  duty  as  distinct,  comprehensive, 
vital,  as  the  diligent  support  of  the  family  or  loyal  devotion  to  the 
state. 


CHAPTER  H. 
THE  IMPERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH : 

ITS    DOCTRINES,  ITS    SACRAMENTS,  ITS   ORDINANCES. 

Having  gained  analytically  and  historically  a  distinct  con- 
ception of  the  Church  of  God  on  earth,  and  having  discovered 
a  proper  justification  of  the  existence  of  this  remarkable 
organization,  we    are  now   prepared  to    enter  upon    closer 


42  THE   IMrERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF  TUE   CHURCH. 

examination  of  its  constituents — its  component  elements. 
These  are  of  two  classes,  the  impersonal  and  the  personal. 
The  impersonal  elements,  to  be  considered  in  the  present 
chapter,  are  three:  Doctrines,  Sacraments  and  Ordinances. 

I,  JDocTRiNE  Defined  :  Church  Creeds  Described. — A  doctrine 
may  he  dcfiucd  as  any  truth  derived  from  Scripture,  and  essential  to 
the  Christian  system,  so  expressed  and  described  as  to  guard  against 
unscriptural  error.  ^  Doctrines  are  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
both  opinion  and  dogma.  An  opinion  is  the  judgment  of  an  individ- 
ual, or  of  a  class  or  school,  on  some  element  or  aspect  of  revealed 
truth, — a  judgment  only  probable  in  itself,  obligatory  upon  no  one 
beyond  the  holder,  and  liable  to  frequent  fluctuation.  A  dogma  is  an 
opinion  which  has  acquired  some  species  of  external  authority,  and  is 
enforced  upon  others,  without  adequate  justification  in  the  judgment 
or  conviction  of  those  Avho  receive  it.  Doctrines  are  rather  those 
truths  which  stand  forth  as  central  in  the  Scripture,  Avhich  become 
authoritative  through  their  own  inherent  evidence  and  force,  and 
which  are  widely  accepted  by  believers  as  essential,  elements  in  the 
Christian  scheme.  The  doctrines  of  grace  are  the  cardinal  truths  di- 
rectly declared  and  taught  in  the  Bible,  in  order  to  human  salvation, 
expressed  in  words  so  as  to  be  understood,  and  commending  themselves 
authoritatively  to  our  faith. 

When  such  cardinal  truths  are  brought  together  under  some  unify- 
ing principle  into  a  system  — especially  when  they  are  thrown  into  au- 
thoritative form  by  the  Cluirch,  and  imposed  upon  its  members  as 
articles  of  belief,  the  term  Doctrine  assumes  a  new  significance.  A 
fresh  investiture  of  authority,  drawn  not  from  that  Scripture  which 
declares,  but  from  the  organized  Church  which  aflSrms  it,  then  sur- 
rounds such  doctrine.  The  truths  so  grouped  become  at  once  a  Creed 
or  Confession,  representing  the  common  conviction  of  the  body  that 
proclaims  it,  whether  for  edification  or  for  defence.  The  statements 
given  contain  the  authorized  teaching  of  the  body,  and  constitute  a 
Rule  of  Faith,  or  in  ancient  phrase,  a  Canon  of  Belief. 

Apart  from  all  question  respecting  doctrine  in  the  form  of  creeds, 
there  can  be  no  real  debate  as  to  the  need  of  doctrine  within  the  Church. 
If  it  be  said  that  the  simple  language  of  Scripture  is  sufiicient,  without 
such  additional  human  statements,  it  may  be  replied  that  since  truth  is 
not  definitively  described  at  any  point  in  the  Bible,  but  is  spread 
diflTusively  through  it,  it  becomes  both  a  necessity  and  a  privilege  for 
the  sanctified  mind  to  gather  up  this  scattered  teaching,  and  to  bring 

'Smith,  H.  B.,  Introduction  to  Christ.  Theol.,  p.  56. 


CHURCH   CREEDS   JUSTIFIED.  43 

it  into  (lefiuite  form,  and  into  logical  coherence.  This  is  indispensable 
also  to  that  function  of  the  Cbiirch  as  a  teacher  of  men — to  that 
mission  of  the  Church  as  a  messenger  of  truth  to  mankind,  on  which 
Protestantism  insists  as  one  of  the  essential  marks  of  the  true  household 
of  faith.  Moreover,  such  transmutation  of  Scripture  into  doctrine  is  a 
healthful  and  invigorating  exercise :  the  Church  has  ahvays  been  both 
most  vigorous  in  itself,  and  most  zealous  as  a  public  teacher,  wheu  it 
has  thus  held  the  cardinal  truths  of  the  Gospel  in  most  distinct,  col- 
lected, potential  form.  In  a  word,  doctrine  in  some  shape  seems  in- 
dispensable to  spiritual  Christianity;  it  sets  forth  that  Christianity, 
apart  from  all  formalized  perversions  of  it  such  as  the  Papacy  has  intro- 
duced, and  exalts  it  immeasurably  above  the  great  natural  faiths  such 
as  the  Asiatic,  in  which  no  such  invigorating  and  inspiriting  element 
appears.  ^ 

II.  Church  Creeds  :  Reasons  for  their  Existence. — Reverting 
to  the  question  whether  Christian  doctrine  should  ever  assume  the 
form  of  creed  or  confession,  we  may  observe  that  the  Church  has  ex- 
isted, as  it  did  in  the  apostolic  age, or  may  exist  again  as  in  the  millen- 
nial age,  without  any  such  authoritative  symbol.  Wherever  there  is 
known  agreement  respecting  the  truth  held,  or  wherever  there  is  no 
error  or  heresy  at  work  subverting  the  truth,  the  embodiment  of 
doctrine  in  a  creed  may  be  a  needless  task.  Such,  for  illustration, 
were  the  convictions  and  belief  of  the  early  disciples,  and  so  free  was 
the  Gospel  at  that  stage  from  the  encroachments  of  false  opinion,  or 
the  assaults  of  opposing  faiths,  that  believers  were  not  impelled  to  do 
more  than  verbally  to  testify  to  what  they  believed.  But  the  general 
position  of  the  Church  is  different,  and  in  its  ordinary  estate  more 
formal  creeds  are  born  of  a  distinct  necessity,  and  are  obviously  essen- 
tial to  its  most  effectual  life  and  Avork.  This  necessity  is  twofold — ex- 
ternal and  internal : 

The  external  necessity  may  be  seen  in  the  various  relations  which 
the  several  divisions  of  the  Church  sustain  to  each  other,  or  which  the 
Church  as  a  whole  sustains  to  opposing  heresies  or  false  faiths,  or  to  the 
unbelieving  world.  It  is  obvious  that  in  the  divided  state  into  which 
Protestantism  has  fallen,  suspicions  may  often  be  quieted,  discords 
healed,  unity  and  confidence  secured,  and  the  general  interest  promoted, 
by  the  enunciation  of  a  clear,  strong,  spiritual  creed.     The  symbols  of 

'  "The  doctrines  that  center  in  Him,  are  not  mere  theories,  abstract  opinions, 
but  they  express  the  essential  facts  about  His  person  and  worlc.  The  Church 
can  no  more  tlirive  witliout  them,  than  morality  can  prosper  without  precepts 
and  ijroliibitions.  The  attemj^t  to  separate  Christian  doctrine  trom  the  Christian 
life  is  vain.  The  two  are  as  vitally  connected  as  are  the  principle  of  life  and  the 
formative  principle  in  the  case  of  every  seed  or  embryo." — Smith,  H.  B.,  Christ. 
Theology,  p.  593. 


44  THE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   CIIUIICII. 

the  Refonnalioii  originated  chiefly  in  sucli  ii  demand;  they  were  largely 
the  voices  of  cliurch  calling  to  church,  in  attestation  of  what  each 
maintained  as  essential  trutli.  The  presence  of  heresy  respecting  car- 
dinal doctrine,  has  been  another  irerjuent  occasion  for  such  attestation. 
The  ecumenical  creeds  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  had  their  rise 
primarily  in  exigencies  of  this  class  ;  it  is  to  Arius  and  Pelagius  and 
their  disciples,  that  we  owe  these  monumental  declarations  of  Christian 
belief.  To  Romanism,  to  the  Greek  Church,  to  J\Iohammedanism,  and 
even  to  those  great  natural  religions  which  from  the  beginning  have 
stood  over  against  s])iritual  Christianity,  a  similar  debt  is  due.  Even 
the  great  varieties  of  unbelief,  especially  the  modern  forms  of  skepti- 
cism, have  suggested  the  need  of  earnest,  united  declaration  by  the 
Church  of  those  great  doctrines  to  which  these  types  of  error  have  been 
opposed.  In  a  word,  is  it  not  manifest  that,  were  such  confessions  in 
no  sense  essential  to  the  Church  inwardly,  their  existence  is  fully  jus- 
tified by  these  great  exterior  uses  to  which  history  shows  them  to  have 
been  so  decisively  subservient? 

But  the  Church  needs  such  creeds  to  meet  its  own  interior  needs; 
they  sustain  many  important  relations  to  its  inward  condition,  experi- 
ence and  growth.  As  a  bond  of  union,  the  Westminster  Symbols,  for 
illustration,  have  been  of  incalculable  value  not  merely  to  the  par- 
ticular churches  associated  together  under  the  Presbyterian  order, 
but  to  the  general  interests  of  Presbyterian  ism  throughout  the  world. 
As  regulative  guides  to  those  who  teach  or  who  hold  office  within  the 
Church,  such  statements  of  belief  are  vastly  helpful,  on  one  side  as  a 
confirmation  of  their  teaching,  and  on  the  other  as  a  guarantee  against 
error  in  such  teaching.  As  helps  in  the  indoctrination  of  believers, 
they  are — especially  in  the  catechetical  form — of  possibly  greater  service. 
They  supply  clear  definitions,  explain  Avhat  is  obscure,  guide  and  stimu- 
late inquiry,  and  in  the  aggregate  furnish  to  the  private  member  a 
special  and  effectual  education  in  the  doctrines  of  grace.  In  the  aggre- 
gate, the  influence  which  such  confessions  exert  on  the  thought  and 
conduct  of  those  who  are  brought  under  their  training,  though  often 
silent  and  unobserved,  is  far  more  effective  than  most  persons  supjDOse. 
A  comparistjn  of  creedless  denominations  with  those  that  possess  strong, 
positive  creeds,  will  abundantly  confirm  this  estimate. 

III.  Objections  to  Creeds:  Proper  Limitations. — Most  of  the 
objections  urged  against  this  doctrinal  or  confessional  constituent  of  the 
Church,  rest  rather  on  the  deficiencies  of  creeds,  or  on  the  perversion  of 
them  for  wrong  ends,  than  on  either  doctrines  or  confessions  in  them- 
selves. To  object  that  the  Bible  is  sufficient  as  it  stands,  or  that  Chris- 
tian life  is  something  higher  and  more  conclusive  than  all  creeds,  or 
that  such  doctrinal  or  confessional  constructions  are  human  merely,  and 


OBJECTIONS   TO   CREEDS.  45 

therefore  unimportant,  is  really  to  say  but  little  to  the  purpose.  To 
object  that  creeds  are  too  voluminous  or  too  minute,  as  they  sometimes 
are ;  or  that  they  represent  rather  the  differences  than  the  agreements  of 
believers,  as  is  too  frequently  the  case,  is  simply  to  suggest,  not  their 
abrogation,  but  their  improvement.  It  is  indeed  quite  obvious  that  the 
primary  function  of  a  Christian  confession  is  not  to  incorporate  all 
minor  points  of  belief,  as  might  be  done  in  a  system  of  theology,  but 
rather  to  embody  in  definite  form  those  central  elements  of  faith  which 
lie  at  the  basis  of  all  true  church  life.  No  less  obvious  is  it,  that  it 
can  never  be  the  main  oflice  of  such  a  confession  to  spread  out  differ- 
ences, and  stand  forth  as  divisive  standards  around  Avhich  partisans  may 
rally,  but  rather  to  draw  together  and  so  far  as  possible  to  unify  all  who 
hold  to  the  common  Gospel.  Most  of  all  is  it  obvious  that  the  great 
historic  confessions,  Avhether  of  the  earlier  Church,  or  of  the  era  of  the 
Reformation,  Avere  never  intended  primarily  to  be  used  tyrannically  by 
churchly  authorities  as  instruments  to  arrest  freedom  of  inquiry,  or  to 
bind  the  household  of  faith  in  unwilling  allegiance  to  opinion  or  dogma. 
This  objection  might  in  like  manner  be  urged  against  all  theology,  or 
even  the  Gospel  itself,  since  now  as  in  the  age  of  Paul  there  are  those 
who  pervert  that  Gospel  to  illicit  and  injurious  uses.  As  a  further 
answer,  it  should  be  held  constantly  in  view  that  the  Church  Avhich 
frames  a  creed,  has  the  right  at  any  moment  to  revise  it  wherever  it  is 
defective — to  modify,  expand,  abbreviate,  change  the  document  itself, 
and  also  to  regulate  at  all  times  the  use  or  abuse  made  of  it  by  eccle- 
siastical authorities.  Such  a  prerogative  is  certainly  to  be  exercised 
with  great  caution,  but  the  right  to  exercise  it,  like  the  right  to  inter- 
pret Scripture,  is  cardinal  in  Protestantism,  and  is  inherent  in  every 
Protestant  Church. 

In  general,  therefore,  it  may  jus.tly  be  maintained  that  a  solid 
foundation  of  doctrine,  which  may  be  embodied  legitimately  in  author- 
ized symbols,  is  one  among  the  essential  constituents  of  the  Church  of 
God.  Even  in  the  earliest  stages  in  the  life  of  that  Church,  we  dis- 
cover this  doctrinal  element  at  the  basis  of  all  religious  experience ; 
and  as  the  household  of  faith  expands  into  its  later  and  larger  forms, 
we  find  this  element  steadily  enlarging  in  volume  and  becoming  more 
conspicuous  in  its  influence.  It  Avas  one  of  those  great  characteristics  of 
the  apostolic  Church,  which  set  it  apart  altogether  from  the  existing 
pagan  faiths,  that  it  possessed  such  a  system  of  truth,  and  aimed  to 
secure  adherents  only  through  such  education  and  persuasion  as  that 
system  of  truth  d.emanded.  In  all  later  times,  the  special  strength  of 
Christianity  in  opposition  to  all  false  philosophies  or  teachings,  has 
been  largely  in  the  body  of  doctrine  it  has  held  and  promulgated ;  in 
our  time,  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  next  to  the  central  fact  of  a  divine 


46  Till:   IMrEUSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

Person  who  i.s  its  Life,  lies  in  what  it  is  as  a  harmonious,  demonstrable, 
profound,  and  most  effectual  scheme  of  Truth.  And  is  it  not  an  ob- 
vious lesson  of  history  that  those  branches  of  the  Church  which  have 
rested  less  on  the  priesthood  or  the  sacraments,  or  on  liturgies  or  polity 
or  other  externalities — which  have  made  much  rather  of  doctrine,  and 
have  held  tlieniselves  most  strenuously  to  the  task  of  teaching  the 
world  what  the  Christian  doctrine  is,  have  attained  the  largest  growth, 
the  most  enduring  position,  the  widest  influence?^ 

IV.  Sacmament  Defined:  Number  of  the  Sacraments. — The 
second  impersonal  constituent  of  the  Church  is  seen  in  the  sacraments. 
Here  the  first  inquiry  relates  to  the  nature  of  a  sacrament,  and  to  the 
number  of  the  sacraments  as  enjoined  in  Scripture.  According  to  the 
familiar  Scholastic  definition,  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  Ilomish 
view,  a  sacrament  is  sacrum  signuni  vel  significatio  sacrae  rei  invisibilis. 
According  to  the  Catechism  of  Westminster,  Avhich  follows  substan- 
tially the  earlier  Protestant  creeds,  a  sacrament  is  a  holy  ordinance  in- 
stituted by  Christ,  wherein  by  sensible  signs  Christ  and  the  benefits  of 
the  new  covenant  are  represented,  sealed  and  applied  to  believers. 
The  scholastic  definition  is  expanded,  in  the  Catechism  of  the  Council 
of  Trent,  so  as  to  make  a  sacrament  an  outward  sign — rem  esse  sensilms 
svbjectam — by  which,  in  virtue  of  a  divine  institution  or  appointment, 
holiness  and  righteousness  are  both  signified,  and  effectually  implanted.  ^ 
Both  the  Roman  and  the  Protestant  definitions  agree  on  the  following 
points:  that  a  sacrament  is  an  institution,  of  divine  ajipointment  and 
authority,  given  not  to  individual  believers  separately,  but  to  the 
Church ;  that  in  every  sacrament  there  is  primarily  an  external  sign 
or  symbol,  simple,  definite,  unchangeable;  that  there  is  also  a  gracious 
truth,  or  series  of  truths,  symbolized  in  the  external  rite,  and  suitably 
expressed  by  it;  and  finally  that  there  exists  a  divinely  ordained  con- 
nection between  the  s'tgnum  and  the  res  sacra  represented,  which  it  is 
incumbent  upon  the  Church  at  all  times  to  maintain,  and  in  due  form 
to  commemorate.  So  far  forth  all  branches  of  nominal  Christendom 
are  agreed  in  their  conception  of  a  sacrament ;  all  unite  in  recognizing 
the  cardinal  fact,  that  sacraments  are  ordinances  or  institutions  directly 
imposed  upon  the  Church  by  God,  and  have  their  interpretation  and 
warrant  directly  from  His  revealed  Word.  It  is  also  a  matter  of  gen- 
eral conviction  that  the  sacrament,  as  thus  described,  belongs  to  the 
Christian  rather  than  the  Hebraic  or  Patriarchal  church.  In  other 
words,  while  all  discern  the  germs  of  these  peculiar  institutions  in  cer- 

1  On  the  significance  and  worth  of  Church  Creeds,  see  \VixVer,  Confessions  of 
Cliristendom :  Preliniinary  essay.  Also  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  Vol.  1 :  pp. 
3-9.     Bannerman,  Church  of  Christ,  Part  III :  Div.  1 :  Chap.  2,  3. 

*  MoEHLER,  Symbolism,  p.  197. 


SACEAMENTS   DEFINED.  47 

tain  ordinances  enjoined  especially  upon  the  Hebrews  under  Moses, 
the  sacrament  proper  is  admitted  to  be  a  distinctive  characteristic  of 
the  Gospel  dispensation. 

Protestantism  differs  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  first  of  all,  in  main- 
taining that  the  authority  of  a  sacrament  must  be  derived,  not  merely 
from  general  biblical  allusion  or  recognition,  but  from  the  immediate 
command  of  Christ  Himself.  The  Eucharist,  for  example,  rests  on 
such  a  definite,  imperative  command:  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  Me. 
Baptism  in  like  manner  rests  on  a  direct  recognition  by  our  Lord,  and 
on  His  final  commission :  Baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  These  two  ordinances,  as  we 
maintain,  thus  repose  on  a  direct  divine  warrrant,  which  makes  them 
obligatory  in  all  ages  upon  the  Church.  To  set  them  aside  as  human 
ceremonies,  or  to  refuse  the  observance  of  them  on  any  natural  ground, 
becomes  impossible.  Romanism  admits  the  peculiar  claim  of  these  two 
ordinances  by  placing  them  above  all  others  as  the  sacramenta  majora, 
and  enjoining  them  especially  on  its  adherents.  Following  rigidly 
this  test,  Protestantism  rejects  the  five  ordinances  regarded  by  the 
Romish  Church  as  a  minor  species  of  sacrament, — confirmation,  pen- 
ance, ordination,  matrimony,  and  extreme  unction.  Churchly  penance 
as  a  substitute  for  evangelical  repentance  is  not  only  without  biblical 
warrant,  but  is  directly  contrary  to  the  teaching  of  our  Lord.  Ex- 
treme unction  is  a  practice  of  very  doubtful  authority,  and  is  often 
made  an  instrument  of  spiritual  mischief.  Matrimony  is  properly 
viewed  as  a  religious  no  less  than  a  civil  contract,  but  clearly  has  no 
place  among  the  sacraments,  as  instituted  by  Christ.  Confirmation 
and  ordination  are  merely  modes  of  full  reception  into  the  Church,  or 
of  official  investiture  within  it ;  and  while  proper,  are  in  no  sense  sac- 
ramental. The  symbolical  element,  and  the  direct  appointment,  are 
wanting  in  them  all.  To  regard  them  as  sacraments,  therefore,  both 
lowers  the  proper  conception  of  a  sacrament,  and  assigns  to  these  sub- 
ordinate ordinances  or  usages  a  spiritual  value  Avhich  the  New  Testa- 
ment nowhere  justifies.^ 

Protestantism  also  adheres  rigidly  to  the  doctrine  that  the  value  of 
the  sacraments  lies  in  their  representative  quality — not  in  any  mystical 
eflficacy  embodied  in  the  observance,  and  transmitted  through  it  to  the 
recipient.  It  refuses  to  dissociate  the  outward  sign  from  the  specific 
truth  symbolized,  or  to  admit  that  the  administration  of  the  sign  can 
be  of  any  spiritual  avail  excepting  in  conjunction  with  and  through  the 
truth  it  represents.  The  declaration  of  the  Westminster  Catechism 
that  the  sacraments  became  effectual,  not  from  any  virtue  in  them,  or 

'  On  the  number  and  variety  of  the  usages  so  regarded  by  the  Papal  Church 
at  various  periods  in  its  history,  see  Hodge,  Theol.  Ill :  492-497. 


48  THE    IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE  CHURCH. 

in  liim  that  doth  administer  tlieni,  l)ut  only  by  the  blessing  of  Christ, 
and  the  working  of  His  Spirit  in  those  who  by  faith  receive  these  sac- 
raments— only  in  virtue,  in  other  words,  of  the  gracious  verities  they 
represent,  and  of  the  faith  by  which  these  verities,  as  seen  in  the  ont- 
ward  rite,  arc  approj)riated  by  the  soul — is  the  universal  doctrine  of 
Protestantism:  see  Heidelberg  Cat.,  Answer  66.  Lutheranism  indeed 
has  claimed  on  the  authority  of  Matt.  26:  26,  that  Christ  is  in  some 
way  embodied  in,  with  and  under  the  elements  in  these  sacraments; 
yet  the  Lutheran  Church  regards  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  par- 
ticipation in  them,  not  as  a  mystical  transfusion  of  Christ  Himself  into 
the  soul,  but  as  an  act  of  spiritual  trust  in  Him  and  His  salvation. 
For  the  Romish  supposition  that  the  sacrament  is  an  «p<.s  opaxdwn, — 
a  process  by  which,  through  the  priestly  administration  under  churchly 
authority,  grace  flows  immediately  from  the  Church  as  a  reservoir  into 
the  recipient,  no  true  warrant  can  be  found  in  the  Word  of  God.  The 
mischiefs  consequent  upon  the  admission  of  this  error,  are  to  be  seen 
on  every  page  in  the  later  history  of  the  Papal  Church.^ 

V.  Baptism  Defined:  Its  cexeral  Scriptural  Warrant. — 
Without  entering  u^ion  any  further  enumeration  of  the  grounds  on 
which  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  rests,  we  may  i^ass  to 
the  consideration  of  those  two  great  sacraments  which  even  the  Papal 
Church  recognizes  as  standing  far  above  all  other  churchly  rites:  Baj)- 
tism,  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  Of  these  Baptism  is  to  be  viewed  as  the 
external  or  introducing  sacrament,  to  be  observed  but  once,  and  in  con- 
nection with  admission  to  the  Church,  while  the  Supper  is  the  internal 
and  nutritive  sacrament,  to  be  received  at  intervals,  throughout  the 
life  of  the  believer,  in  remembrance  or  commemoration  of  Him  who 
appointed  it.  Setting  forth  symbolically  different  elements  or  aspects 
of  the  Gospel,  and  ministering  to  different  classes  of  need  in  the  be- 
liever, these  two  sacraments  are  essentially  one  in  the  authority  on 
which  they  repose,  in  the  high  spiritual  blessing  they  incorporate,  and 
in  their  harmonious  expression  of  what  is  most  central  and  precious  in 
the  Christian  scheme. 

Baptism  is  sufficiently  defined  as  the  application  of  water  to  the 
person,  under  the  name  of  the  Trinity,  in  confession  of  spiritual  pollu- 
tion, and  of  the  need  of  regenerative  grace,  and  in  affirmation  of  an 
engrafting  into  Christ,  and  of  holy  covenant  with  Him  and  His  people. 
In  this  general  definition,  and  in  the  general  validity  of  the  ordinance 
as  thus  defined,  all  sections  of  Christendom  are  substantially  agreed. 
The  attempt  to  maintain,  on  biblical  testimonies,  such  as  are  seen  in 
Matt.  3:  11,  1  Peter  3:  21,  Heb.  9:  10,  and  a  few  other  passages,  that 
the  only  baptism  justified  under  the  Gospel  is  spiritual  baptism,  is 

^Halley:  The  Hucrainci.ts,  Tart  I:  Sect.  I. 


BAPTISM   DEFINED   AND    JUSTIFIED.  49 

clearly  vain.^  The  baptism  of  the  Spirit  unto  repentance,  and  the 
making  of  the  conscience  clear  in  the  spiritual  sense,  are  real  results, 
and  results  of  inestimable  moment.  But  the  manner  Jn  which  such 
references  are  introduced  shows  that  they  are  not  exclusive ;  it  rather 
implies  the  presence  and  authoritati-veness  of  the  formal,  symbolic  bap- 
tism, which  is  so  often  directly  described  elsewhere.  Equally  invalid 
is  the  Socinian  position  (Racov.  Cat.  :  345)  that  symbolic  baptism  was 
not  designed  to  be  perpetual,  but  Avas  employed  by  the  apostles  only 
in  the  case  of  persons  passing  over  in  that  age  from  the  world  into  the 
Christian  faith,  as  a  temporary  sign  of  allegiance.  If  it  be  true  that 
our  Lord  did  not  Himself  at  any  time  baptize  (John  4:  2),  still  His 
recognition  of  the  ordinance  was  distinct,  and  His  final  command  to 
baptize  must  be  viewed  as  obligatory,  not  merely  upon  the  apostles  in 
that  era,  but  upon  the  Church  to  the  end  of  time.  Hence,  while 
much  diversity  of  judgment  exists  among  believers  on  points  of  mode 
and  the  like,  the  Greek,  the  Roman,  and  the  Protestant  (with  the 
minor  exceptions  just  noted)  are  agreed  in  regarding  this  as  an  ordi- 
nance abundantly  enjoined  in  Scripture  on  all  believers,  and  therefore 
of  perpetual  obligation  within  the  household  of  faith. 

The  germs  of  this  sacrament  are  unquestionably  to  be  found  in  the 
religious  use  of  Avater  even  in  patriarchal  times,  and  especially  in  the 
washings  and  purifications  of  the  Mosaic  economy ;  .such  as  appear,  for 
example,  in  Ex.  30:  17-21,  Lev.  8:  6,  16:  24-26,  referring  to  the 
priesthood;  in  Ex.  19:  10-14,  Numbers  31  :  19-24,  referring  to  the 
people ;  and  in  various  passages  in  Leviticus  referring  to  the  cleansing 
of  utensils  used  in  religious  ceremonies.  For  the  significance  of  such 
lustrations,  in  connection  Avith  the  idea  of  spiritual  purification,  see 
Isaiah  1:  16,  Zech.  14:  1,  Ezek.  34:  25,  and  many  other  allusions.  If 
the  strong,  though  not  conclusive  evidence  in  proof  of  the  baptism  of 
proselytes  into  the  Hebraic  communion  prior  to  the  time  of  Christ  be 
admitted  here,  Ave  are  justified  in  regarding  the  further  idea  of  spiritual 
relation  or  privilege  as  also  incorporated  in  the  Old  Test,  doctrine.  It 
is  at  least  a  suggestive  fact  that  John  baptized  his  converts  in  this 
double  sense, — the  ordinance  both  typifying  their  iuAvard  cleansing  by 
the  Spirit,  and  exhibiting  their  outward  state  as  his  avoAved  folloAvers. 
Inasmuch  as  neither  the  people  nor  the  Pharisees  seemed  to  regard  the 
rite  as  a  novelty,  and  since  all  classes  interpreted  it  as,  in  the  case  of 
the  disciples  of  Christ  also,  a  mode  or  sign  of  proselytism,  it  is  not 
unreasonable  to  infer  that  proselytic  baptism  Avas  already  known  in 
JcAvish  circles  as  a  mark  of  religious  status  as  Avell  as  of  spiritual  ex- 
perience. The  question  Avhether  the  baptism  of  John  Avas  identical 
with  Christian  baptism  may  be  determined  by  its  intermediate  position 

'Gurney:  Lectures  on  t!ie  Evidences  of  Christianitij,  pp.  1G2-1GG. 


50  THE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   ClIUKCII. 

betweeu  the  two  ecoiioinies,  iiud  by  the  spiritual  teaching  it  conveyed; 
Luke  3:  ti-18.  Though  the  new  economy  had  not  been  formally 
announced,  or  the  Holy  Spirit  formally  conferred,  or  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  formally  stated,  yet  the  repentance  which  John  awakened 
was  repentance  in  view  of  moral  impurity  confessed,  and  the  new  life 
to  which  he  summoned  his  followers  was  in  substance,  though  not  in 
form,  the  new  life  in  Christ.  The  submission  of  our  Lord  to  this  bap- 
tism (Matt.  3:  13-17)  is  well-nigh  conclusive  here.  Preparatory  and 
introductory  though  the  (ybservance  was  in  the  hands  of  John,  it  was 
still  a  true  budding  forth  or  unfolding  of  that  gracious  flower  which 
was  to  be  twined  for  evermore  around  the  brow  of  the  Church  of 
Christ. 

The  warrant  for  Christian  baptism  starts  from  the  direct  institution 
by  our  Lord ;  Matt.  28 :  19.  Prior  to  this  formal  act,  the  apostles  had 
baptized  those  who  believed  on  Him ;  John  3 :  22,  26 ;  but  from  this 
time  baptism  was  to  be  a  holy  institution,  associated  indissolubly  with 
His  Church,  and  typical  both  of  the  indwelling  grace  that  regenerates, 
and  of  the  elective  grace  that  sets  the  disciple  among  the  truly  re- 
deemed, within  the  consecrated  family  and  kingdom  of  God.  That 
from  this  significant  hour,  the  apostles  continued  to  require  obedience 
to  this  rite,  and  themselves  to  baptize  both  privately  and  in  the 
family,  and  within  the  churches  wdierever  they  went,  is  abundantly 
manifest.  Note  the  following  instances  of  individual  ba})tism :  the 
Eunuch  by  Philip,  Saul  by  Ananias,  Crispus  and  Gains,  and  also  the 
twelve  disciples  of  John  by  Paul: — instances  of  baptism  in  the  house- 
hold ;  Cornelius  and  his  company  by  Peter,  Lydia  and  her  family,  the 
jailer  and  all  his,  the  household  of  Stei^hanas,  by  Paul: — instances  of 
baptism,  more  extensively,  within  the  Church;  the  multitude  on  the 
Day  of  Pentecost,  and  a  like  multitude  in  Samaria.  To  these  historic 
accounts  may  be  added  the  abundant  references  to  baptism  in  the 
apostolic  letters  of  Paul  and  Peter, — references  which  leave  no  room 
for  doubt  as  to  the  full  enthronement  of  this  significant  ordinance  as 
one  of  the  sacred  and  perpetual  institutions  of  the  Christian  Church. 

VI.  Baptism:  Its  Nature  and  Design. — Recognizing  this  general 
warrant  for  baptism,  we  may  turn  to  consider  more  specifically  its  na- 
ture and  design.  Here  it  is  essential  to  exclude  at  the  outset  the 
theory  of  sacramental  grace,  whether  in  the  papal  or  in  the  prelatic 
form.  The  place  which  the  sacraments  hold  in  the  economy  of  re- 
demption indeed  justifies  the  expectation  that  in  the  faithful  use  of 
them  divine  grace  will  be  bestowed,  even  in  special  measure ;  and 
Christian  experience  testifies  abundantly  to  the  spiritual  blessings  that 
accompany  such  observance.  In  this  sense  the  sacraments  are  appointed 
channels  of  spiritual  vitality ;  the  blessing  of  Christ  attending  them, 


NATURE   AND   DESIGN    OF   BAPTISM.  51 

and  the  working  of  the  Spirit  being  enjoyed  in  conjunction  with  them 
by  every  true  1)eliever.  But  no  biblical  warrant  can  be  found  for  the 
declaration  either  that  grace  lies  in  the  ordinance  jxr  se,  or  ki  the  ele- 
ments used,  or  that  grace  necessarily  accompanies  or  directly  follows 
the  formal  observance.  To  assert  that  the  sacraments  directly  or  of 
themselves  convey  a  divine  power  or  grace,  which  is  independent  of  any 
spiritual  effort  or  condition  on  the  part  of  man,  and  which  in  the  name 
of  Christ  is  immediately  conferred  through  them  as  means,  under  the 
forms  of  administration  directly  provided  by  the  Church  as  the  author- 
ized medium  of  impartation,  is  to  make  them,  as  sources  of  spiritual 
blessing,  well-nigh  coordinate  with  the  Spirit  and  with  our  Lord  Him- 
self ^  Nor  does  it  relieve  the  error  to  say  Avith  Moehler  that  the  relig- 
ious energies  of  the  soul  are  set  in  new  motion  by  the  sacrament,  since 
he  adds;  Its  divine  matter  impregnates  the  soul  of  man,  vivifies  her 
anew,  establishes  her  in  most  intimate  connection  with  God,  and  con- 
tinues so  to  work  in  all  who  do  not  show  themselves  incapable  of  its 
graces.  In  like  manner,  the  kindred  error  of  baptismal  regeneration, 
or  the  actual  renewing  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  infant  at  the  time 
when  the  external  rite  is  administered,  must  be  rejected  as  devoid  of 
biblical  warrant.  As  applied  to  such  infants,  the  sacrament  indeed 
signifies  their  need  of  the  atoning  lustration  of  the  Cross,  and  of  the 
washing  of  regeneration  through  the  Holy  Ghost ;  Titus  3 :  5.  ^  It 
also  justifies  the  hope  of  their  participation,  through  the  pai'ental  cov- 
enant, in  the  spiritual  birthright  awarded  through  grace  to  all  believ- 
ers. Yet  the  sacrament  does  not  of  itself  necessarily  convey  blessings 
of  either  class;  since  it  maybe  administered  as  a  formal  rite  merely, 
without  any  appreciation  of  its  spiritual  meaning  or  relations.  The 
regeneration  of  a  child  at  the  moment  of  baptism  can  not  on  scriptural 
grounds  be  either  affirmed  or  denied,  inasmuch  as  such  regeneration  is 
a  process  of  the  Spirit,  who  worketh  when  and  where  and  how  He 
listeth.  His  eflSciency  here  as  elsewhere  is  sovereign;  and  the  claim 
(Jf  the  Church  to  be  the  authorized  distributor  of  His  grace,  or  to  de- 
termine where  and  how  it  shall  be  imparted,  is  contrary  to  the  teaching 
of  Scripture,  and  is  fraught  as  a  dogma  with  vast  spiritual  mischiefs  : 
See  Heidelberg  Cat.,  Answers  69-73. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  bai:)tism  includes  two  distinct,  and 
yet  closely  associated  elements:  spiritual  pollution  and  purification  on 
the  one  side,  and  religious  status  or  privilege  within  the  Church  on  the 

*  Moehler,  Symbolism,  p.  198.     Catechism  Trident. 

'See  also  Mark  IG:  16,  John  3:  5,  Epli.  5:  2G,  wliicli  are  sometimes  quoted  in 
support  of  the  opinion  tliat  baptism  is  regenerative.  But  tlie  incorrectness  of 
such  application  is  clearly  obvious  from,  1  Peter  3:  21,  1  Cor.  1 :  14-17,  and  other 
passages  named  in  the  following  paragraphs. 


i)2  Tin:  iJirERSONAL  constituents  of  the  church, 

other.  In  the  former  sense,  it  represents  what  is  the  grand  peculiarity 
of  the  Gospel  as  a  religious  system  founded  on  the  second  birth. 
AVhile  it  does  not  convey  regeneration,  the  ordinance  fitly  symbolizes 
it.  It  shadows  forth  tlie  change  of  heart,  John  3:  5;  points  to  spirit- 
ual union  Avith  (Jhrist  through  faith,  Gal.  3:27;  illustrates  repentance 
a-s  the  essential  condition  of  such  union,  Acts  2:  38;  and  sets  forth  the 
spiritual  resurrection  which  His  grace  confers,  Rom.  G:  4-5.  The  ex- 
ternal element  in  the  sacrament  is  manifest  in  the  case  of  every  adult 
recipient ;  since  baptism  is  associated  always  with  personal  confession  of 
Christ,  and  actual  union  with  His  visible  Church:  Acts  2:  41,  47,  and 
other  passages.  The  inward  regeneration  is  here  presupposed,  as  the 
proper  justification  of  the  outward  confession.  Baptism,  irrespective 
of  a  renewed  character  in  such  recipient,  can  signify  nothing  in  the 
way  of  spiritual  right  or  privilege ;  it  confex'S  no  title,  de  jure,  to 
membership  in  the  church  invisible.  In  the  case  of  an  infant,  the  or- 
dinance must  carry  the  same  general  meaning,  though  the  membership 
attained  must  from  the  nature  of  the  case  be  constructive  and  provis- 
ional only, — a  membership  which  becomes  complete  only  -when  the 
baptismal  covenant  is  voluntarily  owned,  and  the  personal  renewing 
through  Christ  is  sincerely  confessed.  Some  advocates  of  baptismal 
regeneration  use  the  phrase  in  this  external  sense  only,  to  signify  not 
the  second  birth,  but  simply  this  church  relationship  pledged  and 
typified  in  the  formal  rite. 

Comprehensively,  the  sacrament  of  baptism  thus  stands  at  the 
threshold  of  the  Christian  Church,  certifying  before  the  world  its  belief 
in  the  spiritual  depravation  of  all,  even  of  the  infants  of  believers,  and 
in  the  need  and  the  certainty  of  complete  restoration  from  this  deprav- 
ity through  the  grace  of  Christ,  and  the  agency  of  His  Spirit ;  certify- 
ing also  to  the  forfeited  estate  and  spiritual  orphanage  of  all,  even 
children  of  disciples,  and  to  the  divine  assurance  of  spiritual  adoption 
and  kinship  conferred  on  every  one  who  by  faith  receives  Him  whom 
this  holy  rite  so  impressively  portrays  in  His  vast  redemptive  work? 
It  is  thus  justified,  as  an  institute  of  the  Church,  not  only  by  the  di- 
rect command  which  enjoins  it.  Matt.  28:  19;  but  also  by  the  funda- 
mental truths  it  represents,  and  by  its  vital  relations  to  all  profound 
spiritual  experience.     See  West.  Conf,  Ch.  xxviii :  i. 

VII.  Baptism:  Modes  of  Administration. — Two  serious  questions 
here  confront  us,  which  require  distinct,  though  it  be  brief  considera- 
tion ;  the  question  of  mode,^  and  the  question  of  subject  or  recipient. 

'The  following  works  may  be  consulted  on  the  question  of  Mode:  Dale, 
Classic,  Judaic,  Johannic,  Christie  and  Patristic  Baptism,  4  Vols:  Stuart,  M., 
Mode  of  Christian  Baptism  ;  Beecher,  E.,  Baptism,  Its  Import  and  Modes;  Car- 
son, A.  (Baptist),  Baptism  in  its  Modes  and  Subjects;  Wall,  W.  (Baptist),  Infant 
Baptism,  etc. 


MODES   OF   ADMINISTRATION.  53 

Three  distinct  methods  of  administering  baptism  are  recognizable  in 
Christendom:  sprinkling,  affusion  and  immersion.  It  is  difficult  to 
account  either  for  the  gradual  rise  of  such  variety  in  method  within 
the  Church,  or  for  the  gradual  disappearance  of  affusion,  if  it  be  sup- 
posed that  one  strict,  inexorable,  universal  mode  was  clearly  enjoined 
by  our  Lord  or  His  apostles.  These  facts  lead  rather  to  the  conclusion 
— quite  in  harmony  with  the  nature  of  Christianity  as  a  sj)iritual 
faith — that  while  Christ  carefully  instituted  the  sacrament  as  an  endur- 
ing element  in  His  Church,  He  intentionally  left  this  subordinate 
question  of  method  largely  to  the  judgment  of  the  Church  in  the  di- 
versified conditions  in  which  it  was,  as  He  foresaw,  to  be  placed  in  the 
earth.  It  is  at  least  presumable  that,  so  long  as  the  essential  truths 
embodied  in  the  sacrament  are  spiritually  held,  the  matter  of  ritualistic 
expx'cssion  must  be  incidental  in  His  sight, — freedom  and  variety  in 
the  latter  direction  being  entirely  in  harmony  with  loyalty  to  the  doc- 
trine taught,  and  in  some  respects  even  helpful  in  the  fuller  elucida- 
tion and  enforcemeyit  of  that  doctrine.  It  is  obvious,  further,  that 
tenacious  adhesion  to  any  specified  mode,  unless  it  is  directly  enjoined 
in  the  New  Testament,  must  be  regarded  by  Him  with  disapproval 
rather  than  favor,  especially  if  it  be  accompanied  by  the  condemnation 
of  other  modes  as  departures  from  the  requisitions  of  essential  Christi- 
anity, or  by  the  disfranchising  of  other  communions  as  insufficient  and 
unworthy  of  fellowship  at  His  table.  On  the  hypothesis,  assumed  for 
the  moment,  that  no  such  direct  injunction  putting  the  question  for- 
ever at  rest,  is  found  in  the  Bible,  it  is  clear  that  uniformity  in  admin- 
istration, in  all  countries  and  in  all  ages,  can  not  be  insisted  upon, 
even  though  uniformity  prevailed  in  apostolic  times, — especially  if  the 
mode  insisted  upon  be  one  which  can  not  be  suitably,  safely,  and 
without  liability  to  perversion,  employed  at  all  times  and  under  all 
circumstances.^  Such  general  considerations  certainly  go  far  both 
toward  explaining  the  existence  of  the  variety  in  administration  actually 
feurrent  in  the  Church,  and  toward  justifying  the  position  here  main- 
tained, that  no  adequate  warrant  for  the  use  of  either  of  the  current 
modes,  to  the  absolute  exclusion  of  the  other  as  contrary  to  the  Word 
of  God,  can  be  derived  from  that  Word.  To  these  suggestions  may 
be  added  the  broad  historical  fact  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
usage  of  the  apostolic  era,  the  Church  of  the  first  three  centuries  did 
not  always  or  even  habitually  observe  one  mode ;  that  from  this  period 
down  to  the  Reformation  the  mode  which  is  regarded  by  some  as  alone 

'  "  Whether  the  person  who  is  baptized,  be  wholly  immersed,  and  whether 
thrice  or  once,  or  whether  water  be  only  poured  or  sprinkled  upon  him,  is  of  no 
importance ;  Churches  ought  to  be  left  at  liberty  in  this  respect,  to  act  according 
to  the  difference  of  countries  " — Calvin,  Inst,  Book  IV:  Ch.  15:  19. 


54  THE   IMPERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE  CHURCH. 

possessing  (liviii(>  warrant,  almost  entirely  (lisap])care(l ;  and  that  f^inee 
the  Reformation,  this  mode,  notwithstanding  the  most  strenuous  efforts 
of  its  advocates,  has  never  been  al)le  to  win  the  suffrages  of  evangel- 
ical Protestantism,  but  remains  at  this  day  the  opinion  of  a  relatively 
small  minoi-ity  in  the  household  of  foith.  But  it  is  freely  admitted 
here  that  no  general  or  historical  considerations,  however  cogent,  can 
be  conclusive  upon  an  issue  which  turns  directly  on  the  voice,  not  of 
the  Church,  but  of  the  Scripture  itself. 

It  is  admitted  by  all  that  the  biblical  question  rests  primarily  on  tlie 
verbs,  (id-nrru  and  (ia~Ti:,o),  and  their  derivatives.  Passages  in  which 
these  words  are  used  tropically,  (such  as  baptizing  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  Mark  1:8;  Avith  spiritual  fire,  Matt.  3:  11 ;  with  physical  suf- 
fering, or  personal  trial,  Mark  10  :  38;  or  finally  with  etei'nal  torments, 
Luke  3:  16-17,)  shed  but  indirect  and  inadequate  light  on  the  specific 
issues  here  to  be  considered.  "We  also  discover  many  instances  of  di- 
rect reference,  (such  as  the  general  allusions  to  the  baptism  of  John  in 
Luke  7:  29-30,  John  3:  26,  Acts  19:  3-5,)  where  no  clear  suggestion 
in  regard  to  mode  can  be  discovered.  Careful  examination  of  all  the 
passages,  in  which  these  words  occur  with  any  reference  to  the  manner 
of  the  sacrament,  brings  to  light  a  considerable  latitude  of  meaning, 
ranging  broadly  from  cleansing  or  washing,  to  dipping  or  submersion. 
That  there  are  texts  which  suggest  immersion  rather  than  other  modes, 
may  be  freely  admitted;  instances  may  be  seen  in  Matt.  3:  6,  16, 
Mark  1:  9,  John  3  :  22-23,  Acts  8  :  38-39,  Rom.  6:  3-4,  Col.  2:  12, 
Heb.  10:  22;  also  Mark  14:  20,  John  13:, 26.  Upon  these  passages, 
it  should  be  remarked  that  in  the  last  three,  if  not  in  others,  the 
idea  of  washing  or  dipping  rather  than  full  immersion  clearly  predom- 
inates; that  tlie  attempt  to  run  too  close  an  analogy  between  l)ap- 
tism  and  burial,  based  on  the  references  in  the  Pauline  letters,  brings 
in  far  greater  perplexities  than  it  removes;  and  that  in  all  of  the 
historic  instances  given,  simple  affusion  applied  to  one  standing  in  a 
running  stream — as  our  Lord  has  often  been  pictured — answers  as  well 
as  immersion  to  the  statements  made.  A  second  class  of  texts  is 
found,  in  which  other  modes  are  the  more  probable ;  as  Mark  7 :  4,  8, 
and  Luke  11  :  38-40,  applied  to  the  cleansing  of  the  person,  and  the 
purifying  of  the  sacred  vessels;  as  also  Heb.  9:  10,  Acts  2:  41,  4:  4, 
10:  47-48,  1  Cor.  10:  2.  In  these  historic  instances,  the  probability 
against  immersion  must  be  regarded  as  very  strong ;  and  in  the  last, 
the  reference  is  clearly  to  sprinkling  or  affusion  rather  than  submersion, 
in  either  cloud  or  sea.  A  third  class  may  be  named  in  Avhich  immer- 
sion seems  altogether  improbable ;  such  as  Acts  9 :  18,  16 :  15,  32-33, 
18:  8,  and  others.  The  apparently  insuperable  difiiculty  in  the  in- 
stances where  thousands  were  received  into  the  Church  by  baptism  in 


VARIETY   OF   MODE   ADHOSSIBLE.  55 

a  single  day,  which  Robinson  (Lex.  art.  paTrn^u)  urges  so  cogently,  is 
greatly  enhanced  in  at  least  some  other  of  these  instances.  The  bap- 
tism of  Paul  at  Damascus,  of  Crispus  and  othei's  at  Corinth,  and  of 
the  households  of  Cornelius  by  Peter,  and  of  Lydia  and  especially  of 
the  jailer  by  Paul  at  night  and  within  the  prison  walls,  by  immersion 
in  every  case,  is  in  the  highest  degree  doubtful,  if  indeed  it  be  not 
quite  impossible.  Passages  referring  directly  to  sprinkling  as  a  relig- 
ious rite,  based  on  certain  Mosaic  observances  (Heb.  9:  13-14,  10: 
19-22,  1  Peter  1:2),  may  properly  be  quoted  here  in  confirmation  of 
this  direct  evidence  as  to  other  modes  than  submersion. 

What  the  Isew  Testament  yields  to  thorough  and  candid  inquiry  is 
certainly  not  uniformity  of  allusion  or  usage  in  favor  of  immersion, 
but  rather  a  clear  suggestion  of  that  variety,  produced  by  the  varying 
circumstances  under  which  the  sacrament  was  administered,  which 
seems  to  have  grown  afterwards  into  a  law  or  habit  in  the  primitive 
Church.  The  most  ardent  advocate  of  immersion  can  establish  no 
higher  claim  than  this,  and  such  a  claim  those  who  on  general  grounds 
prefer  other  modes  of  administration  as  equally  biblical  and  more  con- 
venient, freely  admit:  see  West.  Conf.,  Ch.  xxvin:  iii ;  also,  West. 
Direct,  for  Worship,  Ch.  vii :  v,  where  allusion  as  well  as  sprinkling 
is  recognized  as  valid.  So  far  as  we  can  ascertain  from  Scripture,  the 
cardinal  fact  thus  is,  that  our  Lord  and  His  apostles  never  determined 
conclusively  the  question  of  mode,  but  rather  granted  to  the  Church 
that  freedom  of  judgment,  that  liberty  of  adjustment  to  its  varying 
circumstances  and  conditions,  Avhich  the  vast  majority  of  the  churches, 
ancient  and  modern,  have  in  fact  allowed.  The  exclusive  enforcing 
of  sprinkling  by  the  Papal  communion,  and  the  equally  exclusive  en- 
forcing of  immersion  by  the  Baptist  communion,  are  alike  unwarranted 
by  the  Bible  itself  and  by  the  history  of  primitive  Christianity,  and 
alike  are  at  variance  with  that  spiritual  freedom  which  is  the  funda- 
mental law  in  the  Christian  Church. 

Further  questions  in  regard  to  the  mode  of  baptism  may  be  consid- 
ered more  briefly.  The  question  whether  any  administration  is  valid 
in  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  not  expressed  or  implied,  must 
be  answered  in  the  negative,  as  no  organization  can  be  a  true  Church 
of  Christ  which  refuses  to  recognize  His  divinity,  and  the  divine  per- 
sonality of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  cardinal  elements  in  Christianity.  Bap- 
tism by  open  errorists  who  cast  aside  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  our 
faith,  is  no  less  invalid  than  the  same  ordinance  would  be,  if  adminis- 
tered in  sport,  or  in  order  to  excite  ridicule  or  contempt ;  yet  Protest- 
antism agrees  with  Romanism  in  holding  that  the  ordinance  is  not 
necessarily  rendered  invalid  by  the  discovered  unworthiness  of  the 
person  administering.     The  validity  of  Romish  baptism  will  be  deter- 


56  Tin:  impersonal  constituents  of  the  ciiur.cii. 

milled  by  tlie  answer  given  to  the  question  whether  the  papal  commun- 
ion is,  notwithstanding  its  heresies,  a  part  of  the  one  Church  of  tliat 
Christ  whom  it  professes  to  receive  as  the  true  Savior  of  men.  On  this 
point  the  French  Confession  (Conf.  Fidci  Gall,  1551)),  says:  Never- 
theless, as  some  trace  of  the  Church  is  left  in  the  Papacy,  and  the  vir- 
tue and  substance  of  baptism  remain,  and  as  the  efficacy  of  ba])tism  does 
not  depend  upon  the  person  who  administers  it,  we  confess  that  those 
baptized  in  it  (the  papal  Church)  do  not  need  a  second  baptism.  Bap- 
tism with  milk  or  oil,  or  any  other  material  than  water,  can  hardly  be 
counted  true  baptism  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  no  previous  consecration 
of  the  water,  or  any  like  preparatory  cleansing  or  disrobing  or  anoint- 
ing of  the  person,  can  be  viewed  as  essential.  Triple  baptism  in  the 
name  of  each  of  the  three  Persons  in  the  Godhead  and  repeated  bap- 
tism, as  in  cases  where  the  person  baptized  has  fallen  into  further  sin, 
are  alike  without  biblical  warrant.  Neither  has  the  ordinance  any 
scrij)tural  connection  Avith  the  naming  or  christening  of  the  recipient. 
Neither  is  the  question  of  place  or  agent  vital,  though  bai)tism  as  a 
sacrament  of  the  Church  should  ordinarily  be  administered  within  the 
sanctuary,  and  by  an  ordained  administrant.  All  ceremonies  super- 
added to  the  observance,  such  as  giving  honey  or  salt  to  the  baptized 
person,  touching  his  mouth  or  ears  *vith  spittle,  breathing  upon  him  by 
the  administrant,  or  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  him,  the  kiss 
of  peace,  the  lighted  taper,  and  the  like,  are  superstitious  departures 
from  the  proper  meaning  and  purpose  of  the  ordinance.  Exorcisms 
and  adjurations,  such  as  are  practiced  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  com- 
munions, have  no  proper  connection  with  the  sacrament.  The  baptism 
of  bells,  altars,  sanctuaries,  and  other  objects  for  the  purpose  of  puri- 
fication, is  a  practice  wholly  diverse  from  the  teaching  of  ►Scrii)ture; 
all  such  perversions  corrupt  our  estimate  of  the  ordinance,  and  are  ob- 
viously at  variance  Avith  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 

VIII.  Baptism:  Proper  Subjects  oPv  Recipients. — The  other  im- 
portant question  to  be  considered  relates  to  the  proper  subjects  or  recip- 
ients of  this  sacrament.^  So  far  as  adult  recipients  are  concerned, 
this  question  will  be  variously  answered  according  to  the  view  taken  of 
the  Church,  and  of  church  connection.  It  is  maintained  here  that 
the  Church  is  not  a  visible  society  merely,  to  whose  rights  and  priv- 
ileges baptism  gives  the  subject  a  formal  title,  but  rather  that  every 
true  Church  must  be  composed  of  persons  who  make  at  least  credible 
profession  of  piety;  and  therefore  that  baptism  becomes  properly  a 
sign  and  seal  of  grace  already  enjoyed — not  a  promise  of  grace  to  come 

*  In  addition  to  the  authorities  already  cited  see  Wardlaw,  Script.  Authority 
of  Infant  Baptism;  Woods,  L.,  Infant  Baptism  ;  Hai,l,  Law  of  Baptism;  Rice, 
N.  L.,  Baptism,  Mode  and  Subjects;  Halley,  on  the  Sacraments,  Vol.  II. 


SUBJECTS   OR  RECIPIENTS   OF  BAPTISM.  57 

through  the  observance,  or  a  i-ign  of  ecclesiastical  place  or  privilege 
secured  through  the  formal  rite.  Waiving  the  special  question  as  to 
the  qualities  of  this  credible  i^rofessiou,  and  to  the  proper  judges  of 
such  j^rofessiou  when  made,  it  must  be  held  that  baptism  is  not  an  ap- 
pointed method  of  transfusing  or  of  procuring  grace,  but  is  simply  an 
emblem  of  corruption  confessed  and  of  sjiiritual  cleansing  gained,  and 
that  on  this  ground,  and  on  no  other,  can  the  baptized  j)erson  become 
entitled  to  a  place  within  the  visible  Church.  This  is  the  general  posi- 
tion of  evangelical  Protestantism,  in  contrast  with  the  sacramentariau 
theory  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  papal  perversion  on  the  other.  We 
can  not  accept,  without  limitation,  the  striking  declaration  of  Cyprian: 
He  who  has  not  the  Church  for  his  Mother,  has  not  God  for  his  Father. 
In  our  view,  adults  are  not  to  come  to  Christ  through  the  Church,  or 
through  outward  ordinances,  but  are  rather  to  come  to  the  Church,  and 
into  the  enjoyment  of  the  sacraments,  through  antecedent  union  with 
Christ.  Protestantism  therefore  does  not  baptize  all  adults  who  seek 
its  chrism,  but  only  those  who  seek  first,  and  first  find,  salvation  in  and 
through  a  personal  Eedeemer. 

But  the  main  question  here  relates  to  the  propriety  of  bai)tizing  those 
who  are  as  yet  incajDable  of  exercising  such  personal  faith.  The  Church 
of  Rome,  regarding  baptism  as  necessary  to  the  removal  of  original 
sin,  and  therefore  to  salvation,  administers  the  rite  to  all  children 
whom  it  can  reach,  Avithout  regard  to  the  relation  of  the  parents  to  the 
Gospel.  The  general  Protestant  jjosition  is,  that,  while  it  is  a  sin  to 
contemn  the  ordinance,  yet  grace  and  salvation  are  not  inseparably  an^ 
nexed  to  it  (West.  Couf. ,  Ch.  xxix:  v),  and  that  therefore  even  adults, 
and,  a  fortiori,  infants  may  be  regenerated  and  saved  without  it.  The 
Scotch  Confession  denounces  as  cruel  and  of  Antichrist,  the  doctrine 
that  unbaptized  infants  are  lost.  Yet  Protestants  vary  as  to  the  degree 
of  freedom  with  which  the  ordinance  is  applied, — some  granting  the 
privilege  to  all  who  seek  it,  and  some  to  the  children  of  baptized  per- 
sons only,  while  others  limit  the  application  strictly  to  the  children  of 
believers.  This  variation  in  practice  seems  to  be  determined  chiefly  by 
the  view  cherished  by  these  parties  respecting  the  amount  or  measure 
of  grace,  to  be  regarded  as  flowing  into  the  soul  with  or  through  the 
observance.  Over  against  both  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  the  vast 
majority  of  Protestant  bodies,  stands  the  doctrine  strongly  maintained 
by  immersionists,  that  all  infant  baptism  is  unauthorized  by  the  AVord 
of  God, — personal  faith  and  personal  confession  being  deemed  indispen- 
sable conditions  and  concomitants  of  the  external  rite.  Hero  the 
burden  of  proof  rests  clearly  on  those  who  claim,  not  that  all  children, 
but  that  the  children  of  believing  parents  may  receive  the  sacrament, 


58  THE    IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUEXTS   OF   THE  CHURCH. 

and    may  'j;iun  ihroujih   it   a   ])lacc  and  name  within  tlio  Clinrch  of 
Chri.st. 

The  general  grounds  on  which  the  latter  belief  is  based,  may  be 
stated  briefly  under  the  following  heads.  First:  it  has  already  been 
made  clear  that  the  Church  of  God  in  all  dispensations  is  but  one 
Church.  While  forms  of  organization  have  been  changed,  while  cere- 
monies and  usages  have  varied  in  different  ages,  the  unity  of  the 
Churcli  as  a  spiritual  organism  has  never  been  lost.  It  is  only  on  the 
basis  of  this  fundamental  truth,  that  such  a  question  as  the  i)rc.sent 
can  be  successfully  considered.  tSccondly:  within  this  one  and  indi- 
visible Church,  the  family  as  a  unit,  has  always  held  a  recognized 
place.  ^  It  is  true  that  God  deals  in  grace  jjrimarily  with  men  as  indi- 
viduals,— that  the  experiences  of  religion  arc  primarily  personal,  and 
that  the  promises  and  privileges  of  the  Gospel  are  given,  for  the  most 
part,  to  independent  persons.  And  yet,  almost  from  the  earliest  man- 
ifestations of  the  Church  among  men,  avc  find  the  household  sharing 
with  the  individual  in  the  blessings  of  redemption.  For  many  cen- 
turies the  Church  dwelt  almost  exclusively  Avithin  the  family;  and 
after  passing  into  the  tribal,  and  then  into  the  national  form,  it  still 
embraced  children  with  their  parents  within  its  hallowing  circle. 
Under  the  Christian  economy,  whether  the  baptism  of  such  children  be 
legitimate  or  otherwise,  their  place  within  that  circle,  and  their  title 
to  the  blessings  flowing  from  such  a  i-elationship,  can  not  well  be  ques- 
tioned. Thirdly :  that  God  condescended  to  specialize  this  connection 
by  entering  into  formal  covenant,  if  not  with  Noah  or  his  predeces- 
sors, then  with  Abraham,  and  with  the  patriarchs  after  him,  in  behalf 
of  their  households,  and  through  them  with  the  heads  of  families 
throughout  the  Hebraic  dispensation,  is  also  a  significant  and  an  un- 
questioned fact.  The  primal  covenant  with  Abraham  (Gen.  17),  can 
be  regarded  as  nothing  else  than  a  holy  compact  in  Avhich,  in  answer  to 
his  parental  faith  and  consecration,  the  posterity  of  the  patriarch  was 
even  through  many  ages  to  be  blessed  spiritually  as  well  as  in  temporal 
estate.  In  its  religious  quality  and  aim,  in  the  domestic  duties  it  im- 
posed and  in  the  spiritual  benefits  it  conferred,  this  covenant  was  not 
limited  to  Abraham  alone,  but  rather  was  set  up  as  an  illustrious  ex- 
ample of  a  like  compact  into  which  succeeding  pati'iarchs  and  indeed 

'  "The  grand  peculiarity  of  humanity  is  that,  while  each  individual  is  a  free, 
responsible  moral  agent,  yet  we  constitute  a  race,  reproduced  under  the  law  of 
generation ;  and  each  new-born  agent  is  educated,  and  his  character  formed 
under  social  conditions.  Hence  results  the  representative  character  of  progen- 
itors, and  the  inherited  character  and  destiny  of  all  races,  nations  and  fami- 
lies. .  .  This  principle  runs  through  the  dealing  of  God  with  the  human  race 
under  the  economy  of  redemption.  The  family  .  .  is  the  unit  embraced  in 
all  covenants  and  dispensations." — Hodge,  A.  A.,  Outlines  of  Theol.,  p.  616. 


BAPTISMAL  COVENANT   EXPLAINED.  59 

all  devout  parents  under  the  Mosaic  economy  might  through  grace 
enter.  Nor  was  this  privilege  limited  to  parents  living  under  that  pre- 
paratory dispensation.  The  same  covenant  may  be  entered  into  under 
the  Gospel,  and  with  even  higher  warrant,  by  all  believing  parents. 
God  still  as  of  old  is  willing  to  pledge  His  grace  and  favor  to  the  im- 
mediate offspring,  and  even  to  the  remote  posterity,  of  those  who, 
themselves  entering  into  holy  relations  with  Him,  desire  also  to  train 
up  their  households  for  His  service  and  glory.  As  the  family  regarded 
as  a  unit  holds  a  real  place  Avithin  the  Church,  so  the  children  of 
faithful  Abraham,  and  the  offspring  of  all  who  exercise  Abrahamic 
trust,  are  properly  embraced  within  this  covenant  of  grace. 

Fourthly:  it  is  also  obvious  that  the  basis  of  this  compact  is  parental 
faith.  As  it  was  not  faith  personally  exercised  at  the  outset  by  each 
member  of  the  Abrahamic  family,  but  simply  the  holy  trust  and  con- 
secration shown  by  the  patriarch  himself,  which  was  the  foundation  of 
the  original  covenant,  so  God  condescends  still  to  accept  like  parental 
trust  and  consecration, — not  indeed  as  a  full  substitute  for  personal 
piety  in  the  child,  but  as  the  ground  of  spiritual  privilege  conferred  upon 
the  child,  and  tlie  basis  of  a  pledge  that  through  His  grace  the  child 
shall  at  length  be  brought  willingly  into  a  personal  experience  of  the 
same  spiritual  life.  Fifthly  :  as  God  has  iu  all  dispensations  instituted 
certain  visible  marks  and  institutions  by  which  the  spiritual  relations 
existing  between  Him  and  believers  are  made  known,  and  as  in  the 
case  of  Abraham  He  instituted  such  a  visible  seal  of  this  gracious 
family  covenant,  so  it  is  reasonable  to  anticipate  that  such  a  seal,  in 
some  form,  would  be  instituted  under  the  Gospel.  In  this  higher  econ- 
omy, Christ  has  at  least  set  up  the  Supper  in  place  of  the  Passover,  and 
Baptism  as  the  distinctive  sign  of  admission  to  His  fold  in  the  case  of 
adults;  and  we  may  therefore  well  presume  that  some  kindred  mark 
or  institution  will  be  given  by  Him  to  signalize  this  gracious  relation- 
ship of  the  household  within  the  one  great  family  of  grace. — From 
such  general  propositions  as  these,  it  must  be  difficult  for  any  thought- 
ful mind  in  the  light  of  Scripture  to  withhold  assent.  There  are 
doubtless  many  among  those  refusing  to  regard  infant  baptism  as  the 
proper  conclusion  from  these  propositions,  who  still  cordially  recognize 
the  grand  and  precious  facts  which  such  propositions  are  framed  to 
describe.  Were  there  no  ordinance  to  mark  the  household  covenant — 
wei'e  there  even  no  formal  covenant  to  represent  the  underlying  verity 
that  the  family  is  treated  largely  as  a  unit  in  the  economy  of  grace, 
that  underlying  fact  must  still  be  one  of  untold  value  in  the  sight  of 
believing  parents  under  all  dispensations. 

IX.    Scripture  Witness  to  Infant  Baptism:    Historic  Testi- 
monies.— It  is  certainly  a  strong  confirmation  of  such  presumption, 


60  THE   IMrEKSOXAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   CIIUIICII. 

that  Christ  and  His  apostles  do  so  distinctly  recognize  the  claim  of 
infancy  to  tiie  blessings  which  He  came  to  confer,  When  our  Lord 
laid  His  hands  on  little  children,  and  i)raycd  for  them,  and  declared 
their  title  to  a  place  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which  is  none  other 
than  His  own  Church  on  earth  (Matt.  19:  13-15),  He  laid  down 
afresh,  in  more  spiritual  form,  what  had  been  the  immemorial  doctrine 
of  the  Hebrews  as  to  the  nature  both  of  the  Church  and  of  the  pa- 
rental covenant,  as  already  defined.  And  again,  when  He  commanded 
Peter  to  feed  the  lambs  as  well  as  tlie  sheep  in  that  vast  fold  into 
which  His  chosen  were  to  be  gathered  tliroughout  the  world  (John  21 : 
15-17),  He  laid  down  a  rule  of  duty  which  all  ministers,  all  churches, 
all  believing  parents  to  the  end  of  time,  are  bound  to  recognize  in  the 
training  of  the  young  for  His  service.  Nor  can  we  contemplate  His 
significant  setting  of  a  little  child  before  His  apostles,  in  order  through 
the  vision  of  its  innocent  simplicity  and  trust  to  rebuke  their  ambitious 
strivings,  without  regarding  the  act  as  suggestive  of  His  estimate  of 
the  corresponding  duty  to  train  up  such  little  ones  within  His  fold,  and 
for  His  service.  And  with  what  our  Lord  thus  suggests,  we  may  fitly 
associate  the  declaration  of  Peter  concerning  the  scope  of  the  Old  Test, 
promise  of  grace,  as  including  the  posterity  of  believers.  Acts  2 :  39 ; 
the  view  of  the  apostles  is  seen  in  their  counsels  to  children  and 
parents  respectively  (Eph.  6:  1-4,  Col.  3:  20-21),  and  the  Pauline 
declaration  (1  Cor.  7:  14)  that  the  children  even  of  one  believing 
parent  in  any  given  household  are  to  be  viewed  by  the  Church  as  holy, 
or  sanctified,  in  virtue  of  such  jiareutal  faith.  In  this  striking  passage, 
it  can  not  be  claimed  that  the  children  thus  viewed  are  in  all  instances 
capable  of  exercising  personal  faith,  and  are  to  be  regarded  as  holy  on 
that  account;  the  belief  of  the  parent,  and  this  only,  is  the  specified 
ground  for  the  position  which  the  apostle  counseled  the  Church  at  Cor- 
inth to  take.  Even  the  unbelieving  husband  or  wife  is  said  to  be  set 
in  better  spiritual  relations,  as  a  consequence  of  such  belief;  and  how 
much  more  the  ofl^spring  of  a  saint  standing  within  the  domestic  re- 
lation ! 

Sevei'al  instances  of  household  baptism,  more  or  less  fully  mentioned, 
serve  to  confirm  these  inferential  evidences.  Of  these  the  most  obvi- 
ous are  the  cases  of  Lydia  and  her  household  at  Thyatira,  of  the  Phi- 
lippian  jailer  and  his  family  (Acts  16:  15,  33),  and  of  the  family  of 
Stephanas  at  Corinth,  1  Cor.  1:  16.  Paul  puts  on  record  his  baptism 
of  Crisj^us  also,  of  Avhom  it  is  said  (Acts  18 :  8)  that  he  believed  on 
the  Lord,  with  all  his  house.  The  additional  case  of  Cornelius,  who 
Avith  other  inmates  of  his  house  was  baptized  by  Peter  at  Csesarea 
(Acts  10:  48),  is  on  probable  grounds  to  be  classed  Avith  those  already 
cited,   as   an  instance  of  family   baptism,  including  old  and   young 


THE   ARGUMENT   FOR   INFANT   BAPTISM.  61 

within  the  domestic  circle.  In  all  of  these  instances,  both  the  i^rompt- 
ness  of  the  baptismal  observance,  at  the  very  time  and  place  where  the 
associated  conversions  occurred,  and  the  direct  including  in  each  in- 
stance of  the  flimily  of  the  l^elieving  parent,  are  to  be  carefully  noted. 
To  assert  that  in  each  and  all  ftf  these  cases  none  but  adults  capable 
of  exercising  personal  faith  were  present,  and  that  the  sacred  rite  was 
applied  in  every  instance  to  such  persons  only,  is  to  go  very  much 
farther  than  the  laws  of  sound  interpretation  permit.  There  can 
hardly  be  reasonable  ground  for  refusing  to  believe  that  in  at  least 
some  one  or  two  of  these  examples  the  family  was  contemplated  in  its 
divine  unity,  and  the  children  of  believing  parents  were,  on  inspired 
authority,  counted  in  the  holy  covenant  then  and  there  made  by  such 
parents  with  Christ.  It  should  be  added  that  the  strong  presumption 
derived  from  such  recorded  instances,  as  well  as  from  the  general  sug- 
gestions previously  considered,  is  confirmed  at  many  points  by  the  apos- 
tolic, and  especially  the  Pauline  conception  of  the  Church,  viewed  as 
an  aggregated  household  or  family  of  grace.  That  none  but  adult  be- 
lievers were  in  any  way  counted  as  members  of  that  divine  fold, — that 
the  domestic  unit  was  altogether  disregarded,  and  the  children  of 
saints  were  viewed  as  having  neither  place  or  claim  within  that  sacred 
fellowship,  can  hardly  be  believed  by  one  who  studies  in  its  essence  and 
purpose  the  New  Testament  Church. 

While  it  is  freely  to  be  admitted  that  these  are  probable  considera- 
tions only,  and  that  no  direct  warrant  exists  for  applying  the  ordinance 
of  baptism  to  infants,  such  as  that  which  enforces  the  Eucharist  upon 
all  believers,  still  the  observance  may  safely  be  rested,  like  the  observ- 
ance of  the  first  day  of  the  week  as  a  Sabbath,  on  the  historic  approval 
and  usage  of  the  apostolic  Church  as  here  described.  The  two  cases 
are  closely  parallel :  and  in  both,  the  biblical  inferences  are  strongly 
sustained  by  the  convictions  and  the  practice  of  believers,  after  the 
apostolic  age  with  its  peculiar  characteristics  had  passed  away.  It  is  a 
clearly  established  fact,  that  if  the  Church  of  the  second  and  third  and 
fourth  centuries  did  not  enjoin  infant  baptism,  it  extensively  admitted 
the  ceremony,  giving  to  it  the  place  and  significance  which  circumci- 
sion had  held  in  the  Hebraic  dispensation.  ^  That  the  usage  came  by 
degrees  to  be  regarded  with  greater  favor,  and  was  at  length  clothed 
with  full  ecclesiastical  authority  as  one  form  of  the  general  sacrament, 
is  abundantly  evident.     Of  its  position  during  the  long  period  between 

■See  Hagf.nbach:  Hist.  Doct,  ??  72,  137,  for  the  various  (and  c(^ntlicting)  judg- 
ment of  the  Fathers  from  TertuUian  in  the  second  to  Augustine  in  the  fifth 
century.  "  Ecclesia  ah  Apostolis  traditionem  accepit  etiam  parvulis  baptismum 
dare  ;  "  Orioen.— Kurtz,  Chnrch.  Hist.,  I ;  g?  32,  58 ;  and  other  church  historians. 
For  modified  view,  see  Neander  ;  Christian  Dogmas,  I ;  228. 


62  TUE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Augustine  and  the  Reformation  there  is  no  serious  question, — a  rite 
indeed  toriuallzed  and  overloaded  with  priestly  accretions,  and  there- 
fore void  of  much  spiritual  value,  yet  representing  in  substance  those 
great  docti'iues  of  grace  which  it  was  originally  appointed  to  symbolize. 
The  general  verdict  of  Protestantism  in  its  favor  is  shown  by  its  almost 
universal  observance,  outside  of  the  circle  of  those  who  hold  to  immer- 
sion as  the  only  admissible  mode  of  administration.  Protestants  do 
not  agree  with  the  Church  of  Rome  in  regarding  baptism  as  essential 
to  the  salvation  of  infants,  and  therefore  make  no  such  extraordinary 
provision  as  that  Church  for  the  very  early  administration  of  the  rite, 
or  for  lay  baptism  iu  special  emergency  as  by  midwives  or  other  unor- 
daincd  persons.  Yet  they  agree  in  emphasizing  the  importance  of  the 
ordinance,  as  constituting  a  special  form  of  covenant  iu  which  the 
parents  and  the  church  on  the  one  side,  and  Christ  as  the  Head  of 
the  household  of  faith  on  the  other,  bind  themselves  by  mutual  vows 
to  train  up  the  baptized  infant  for  the  divine  service.  As  to  the  value 
of  the  parental  side  of  this  covenant,  in  the  way  of  stimulating  to 
faithful  endeavor  and  to  believing  prayer  in  behalf  of  the  baptized 
child,  there  can  be  no  question ;  the  experience  of  multitudes  of  pious 
parents  is  adequate  evidence  here.  And  where  churches  have  been 
faithful  to  their  part  in  this  sacred  transaction,  and  have  become 
spiritual  homes  to  such  children,  in  the  biblical  sense,  the  actual  re- 
sults in  the  increase  of  visible  membership  from  this  class  have  been 
such  as  to  justify  the  strongest  affirmations  respecting  the  salvatory 
value  of  the  sacrament  when  thus  interpreted.  Christ  Himself  in  in- 
stances beyond  number  has  set  His  seal  upon  the  ordinance, — has  ac- 
cepted and  approved  the  covenant  instituted  through  it,  by  drawing 
feuch  children  into  His  arms  as  He  did  of  old,  and  declaring  through 
the  regenerative  ministries  of  His  Spirit  that  of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven. — The  precise  relation  of  such  baptized  children  to  the  vis- 
ible Church,  will  be  considered  at  a  later  stage.  It  is  only  to  be 
remembered  here  that  baptism  does  not  create  that  relation,  but  simply 
embodies  or  expresses  it;  the  covenant  then  entered  into  in  form,  must 
have  existed  in  substance  from  the  moment  when  the  parental  relation 
to  the  child  Avas  established, 

X.  The  Lord's  Supper:  Warrant  and  Nature. — Associated 
with  Baptism  as  a  fundamental  constituent  iu  the  conception  of  the 
Christian  Church,  stands  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  direct  and  formal 
institution  of  this  sacrament  by  the  Messiah,  is  carefully  recorded  by 
three  of  the  evangelists:  Matt.  26:  20-29,  Mark  14:  22-25,  Luke  22: 
17-20.  The  purport  and  spirit  of  the  observance  are  as  carefully  re- 
gistered by  John  also  in  the  final  discourse  and  prayer  of  Christ,  before 
He  led  his  disciples  out  to  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  to  Calvary.     Paul 


THE   EUCHARIST:    WARRANT    AND   NATURE.  63 

also  was  inspired  to  put  on  record  an  account  of  the  institution,  in 
order  that  the  Church  through  all  time  might  the  more  fully  apprecb 
ate  its  significance;  1  Cor.  11  :  23-25.  The  direct  connection  of  the 
sacrament  with  the  Hebrew  Passover,  as  is  indicated  by  the  evangel- 
ists in  their  story  of  the  original  appointment,  brings  that  historical 
event  (Ex.  12  :  3-20)  before  us  as  its  type  and  proper  explanation. 
The  great  deliverance  Avhich  the  Passover  commemorated  was,  at  every 
stage  in  the  history  of  the  chosen  people  (2  Chron.  30  and  35:  passi'm), 
the  recognized  emblem  of  the  far  greater  deliverance  which  our  Lord 
through  His  redemptive  sacrifice  Avas  to  bring,  not  to  the  Hebrew 
only,  but  to  humanity.  Hence  Christ  suggestively  connected  the  new 
ceremony  with  the  old  at  the  outset,  and  at  the  same  time  took  pains 
to  set  the  two  forever  apart,  as  the  shadow  is  forever  separate  from  the 
reflected  reality.  So  clear  is  this  relationship,  and  so  definite  and  im- 
pressive was  the  first  institution  in  accordance  Avith  it,  that  all  who  bear 
the  Christian  name  in  all  ages,  with  few  exceptions,  have  confessed  the 
obligation  to  observe  the  sacrament  perpetually  in  remembrance  of  an 
atoning  Savior, — just  as  the  Hebrews  felt  themselves  perpetually 
bound  to  observe  the  Passover.  The  disposition  to  regard  the  ordi- 
nance as  a  temjDorary  feast  merely,  arranged  by  our  Lord  for  His  first 
disciples  only,  and  the  disposition  to  view  it  as  a  purely  spiritual  act 
of  communion  in  which  the  formal  observance  may  be  entirely  dis- 
pensed with,  are  alike  at  variance  with  the  direct,  conclusive,  perma- 
nent mandate  of  the  Messiah :  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  Me.  ^ 

Over  against  the  tendency  to  view  this  sacred  obervance  as  tempo- 
rary or  as  informal,  stands  the  tendency,  so  manifest  in  the  Church  of 
Rome,  and  in  oriental  Christianity  also,  to  materialize  or  formalize  the 
ordinance  by  overloading  it  with  ceremonial  accretions  wholly  at  vari- 
ance with  its  divine  intent.  This  may  be  seen  in  the  opinion  that  the 
sacrament  is  an  actual  oblation,  in  which  Christ  is  really  offered  up 
afresh  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  His  people.  From  this  view, 
which  has  no  recognizable  basis  in  the  Scripture,  has  largely  sprung  the 
disposition  current  among  Romanists  to  decorate  the  Supper  with  a 
multitude  of  unwarranted  formalities.  In  like  manner,  the  kindred 
theory  that  the  sacrament,  like  baptism,  carries  grace  in  itself,  and 
is  to  be  administered  as  an  opiis  operatum,  is  altogether  without  scrip- 
tural Avarrant,  and  inevitably  leads  on  to  just  such  corruptions  as  are 
aggregated  together  in  the  Romish  Mass.  Resting  on  a  false  and  gross 
interpretation  of  the  phrase.  This  is  my  Body,  and  maintaining  an 
actual  presence  of  Christ  corporeally  in  the  elements  employed — they 

'  GuRNEY :  Evidences  of  CItristlnnify,  pp.  1G7-169.  The  Society  of  Friends  re- 
gard the  Supper  as  well  as  Baptism,  as  a  spiritual  observance  merely,  notwith- 
standing the  explicit  command  of  the  Master,  and  the  example  of  the  Apostles. 


64  THE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   CIIURCII. 

being  actually  transmuted  into  Ills  Hosh  and  His  blood, — that  theory 
may  easily  be  used  to  justify  each  and  all  of  the  grotesque  absurdities, 
which  everywhere  deface  the  eucharistic  service  in  the  papal  commun- 
ion. Difficulties  of  a  like  nature,  though  less  serious,  must  always 
beset  the  observance,  on  the  Lutheran  theory  that  our  Lord  is  ubiqui- 
tously present  in,  with  and  under  the  elements,  though  these  are  not 
actually  changed  into  His  body  an('  His  blood.  While  we  arc  to 
guard  against  the  bald  notion  which  Lutheranism  justly  oj)poses,  that 
the  sacrament  is  commemorative  or  historical  only — while  we  are  bound 
to  recognize  the  other  gracious  relations  which  it  sustains  to  religious 
experience,  we  are  still  to  reject  even  in  its  mildest  forms  the  opinion 
that  grace  is  somehow  incorporated  in  the  elements,  and  is  therefore 
to  be  received  orally  by  the  believer.  To  say  nothing  here  of  the 
speculative  questions  involved,  such  as  the  corporeal  ubiquity  of  Christ 
on  earth  and  His  presence  corporeally  wherever  His  people  arc  assem- 
bled to  conmiemorate  His  death,  we  are  bound  to  maintain  that  the 
benefits  of  the  sacrament  are  spiritual  only,  and  that  such  spiritual 
benefits  can  in  no  way  be  transmitted  through  any  physical  process, 
such  as  the  assimilation  of  the  consecrated  elements  corporeally.  ^ 

The  essential  features  in  the  sacrament  are,  the  use  of  bread  and 
wine  as  the  elements,  the  act  of  consecration  and  distribution  accord- 
ing to  the  original  observance,  and  the  participation  in  both  elements 
by  the  Church,  in  compliance  with  the  precept  and  example  of  Christ. 
To  substitute  another  element  for  either  of  those  first  employed,  or  to 
depart  radically  from  the  original  manner  of  administration,  or  to  add 
ceremonial  features  to  it,  must  be  regarded  as  an  unlawful  deviation 
from  the  divine  command.  The  denial  of  the  cup  to  the  laity,  on 
whatever  ground  of  convenience,  is  a  still  more  serious  departure. 
The  Council  of  Trent  pronounces  this  a  matter  of  discipline  or  method, 
rather  than  of  doctrine;  and  the  usage  is  justified  by  Catholic  writers, 
on  the  ground  that  the  distribution  of  the  cup  is  liable  to  special  forms 
of  desecration,  against  which  the  Church  deems  it  wise  to  guard.  Yet 
the  mandate  of  our  Lord,  Drink  ye  all  of  it,  was  addressed  not  to  the 
priesthood,  but  to  the  Church ;  and  the  assumed  right  to  do  this  rep- 
resentatively, in  the  place  of  the  body  of  lielievers,  can  be  regarded  as 
nothing  else  than  a  priestly  usurpation.  The  indifference  of  the  papal 
communion  to  a  point  so  vital  as  this  is  in  marked  contrast  with  its 
strenuous  requisitions  as  to  the  kind  of  bread  used,  the  manner  of  the 

'  "They  differed  from  the  Reformed  only  in  this,  that  while  the  latter  were 
content  with  the  Word  and  the  Symbols  as  pledges  of  prevenient  grace  in  the  Sac- 
rament, they  added  to  these  the  real  presence  and  oral  communication  of  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ,  as  a  most  gracious  pledge  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins."— 
Sprechek,  Erang.  Luthernn  Theol,  p.  457-460.  The  author  does  not  regard  this 
view  as  fundamental,  or  indispensable,  in  the  Lutheran  system. 


DESIGN   OF   THE   SACRAMENT.  65 

participation,  and  other  minor  points  in  the  observance.  These  minor 
matters,  such  as  the  degree  of  frequency  witli  Avhich  the  sacrament 
shall  be  observed,  or  the  exact  number  partaking,  or  the  precise  place 
or  posture  of  the  recipient,  or  the  explicit  form  of  prayer  or  of  address, 
or  the  singing  of  a  hymn  at  the  close,  are  left  largely  to  the  judgment 
or  to  the  convenience  of  each  congregation  of  disciples.  The  elements 
may  be  received  at  the  altar  or  communion  table,  or  distributed  through 
the  sanctuary ;  the  distribution  may  be  made  by  the  person  administer- 
ing, or  with  the  aid  of  proper  assistants ;  the  participants  may  sit  or 
stand  or  kneel  in  the  act  of  receiving  the  emblems  ;  the  bread  may  be 
leavened  or  unleavened,  and  the  wine  may  be  that  in  common  use  or 
the  unfermented  juice  of  the  grape,  and  may  or  may  not  be  mingled 
with  water.  So  long  as  there  is  appropriate  adherence  to  the  three 
essential  features  already  named,  these  subordinate  questions  may 
safely  be  committed  to  the  spiritual  discernment  and  devout  feeling  of 
the  household  of  faith.  The  spirit  of  charity  finds  nowhere  a  finer 
field  for  beneficent  exercise ;  and  the  autonomy  of  the  individual  con- 
science properly  subordinates  itself  at  the  table  of  our  Lord  to  the 
aggregated  judgment  of  the  Christian  body.  As  a  practical  rule,  the 
usage  of  any  particular  denomination  is  a  sufficient  guide  to  personal 
duty,  on  all  questions  not  involving  the  proper  substance  of  the  sacra- 
ment, as  Christ  himself  has  instituted  it. 

XL  The  Lord's  Supper:  Its  Design  and  Participants. — Rest- 
ing in  the  general  position  that  the  Eucharist  is  not  a  mystical  mode 
of  transmitting  grace  through  the  Church  or  priesthood  to  each  parti- 
cipant, but  is  rather  a  sublime  act  of  faith  and  devotion  in  commemo- 
ration of  the  dying  Redeemer  who  instituted  it,  we  may  proceed  to 
consider  its  object  or  design  more  specifically.  Five  distinct  ends  are 
obviously  gained  through  it.  Of  these  the  first  is  discerned  in  its  his- 
toric or  commemorative  quality.  For  the  Supper  is  an  enduring  wit- 
ness by  the  Church  to  the  transcendent  fact,  which  is  central  in  the 
Christian  scheme — the  death  of  the  Redeemer  on  Calvary.  It  is  a 
continuous  creed  or  confession  proclaimed  by  His  people,  respecting 
their  belief  that  He  did  actually  die  according  to  the  evangelical  nar- 
rative, and  that  His  dying  was  all  that  He  declared  it  to  be  as  an 
atoning  and  redemptive  act.  While  it  would  be  an  error  to  assert  that 
this  commemorative  testimony  was  the  only  end  sought  by  our  Lord 
in  the  institution,  there  can  be  little  room  for  doubt  that  this  was  a 
primary  object.  In  His  purpose  this  ordinance  was  to  be  a  perpetual 
sign  that  the  Passover,  and  with  it  the  entire  economy  of  which  it  was 
representative,  had  passed  away  ;  and  that  a  new  economy,  resting  on  a 
divine  sacrifice  and  conveying  spiritual  life  through  a  higher  form  of 
faith,  had  come  in.»«  It  was  to  call  the  Church,  and  even  the  world, 


66  THE    IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

back  from  time  to  time  to  the  romeml)rauce  of  a  fact,  which  otherwise  the 
world,  and  even  the  Church,  might  soon  forget; — a  fact  wliich  consti- 
tutes the  grand  peculiarity  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  as  a  sdiemc 
of  atonement  through  sacrifice,  and  of  justification  through  faith. — 
But  while  the  ordinance  was  thus  historical  in  its  aim,  it  was  also  in 
the  second  place  specifically  confessional  and  sacramental.  It  implied 
from  the  first  a  declaration  of  personal  trust  in  the  crucified  Savior, — 
au  acknowledgment  of  Him  as  the  true  Lord  and  Redeemer.  It  im- 
plied also  a  personal  covenant  or  pledge  of  discipleship,  as  the  term, 
sacrament,  in  a  military  connection  suggests.  It  was  in  essence  an 
avowal  of  willing  separation  from  the  sinful  world,  and  of  honest  de- 
votion to  the  cause  of  Christ;  1  Cor.  10:  21.  To  remember  and  com- 
memorate Him  duly,  was  impossible  to  one  Avho  still  retained  his  con- 
nections with  the  AVorldlyUfe;  to  accept  Him,  in  this  sacred  act,  Avas 
equivalent  to  a  solemn  purpose  to  renounce  all  else  for  Him. 

It  is  also  obvious,  thirdly,  that  this  sacrament  was  designed  to  bring 
together  in  closer,  warmer  fellowship  all  who  shared  in  it: — not  merely 
binding  them  into  unity  by  the  consciousness  of  common  convictions 
and  purposes,  but  also  setting  before  them  all  the  vision  of  a  common 
home  and  family  of  grace.  Its  form  as  a  feast  was  itself  suggestive  of 
this  associating  and  uniting  function  ;  and  its  place  within  the  Church 
clearly  indicated  its  design,  as  a  bond  of  union  in  the  household  of 
faith.  As  all  partake  of  the  bread  together,  each  professes  his  faith 
anew  to  all  the  rest;  and  as  they  drink  together  the  wine,  each 
assures  the  rest  of  fraternal  affection,  and  all  agree  in  exalting  together 
that  law  of  love  which  is  the  cardinal  principle  within  the  Church, 
And  while  the  communion  thus  becomes  to  the  individual  Christiaii 
a  holy  compact  and  pledge  to  be  loyal  to  Him  whose  dying  it  so  ten- 
derly represents,  it  also  is  in  these  ways  a  poAverful  stimulant  to  Chris- 
tian union :  it  binds  believer  to  believer  and  church  to  church  :  it  draws 
into  blessed  fellowship  at  the  point  most  vital,  all  throughout  the  world 
who  hold  to  Christ  as  their  Divine  Head. — The  fourth  function  of  the 
sacrament  lies  in  what  may  be  termed  itsauticipatory  or  prophetic  quality. 
While  it  points  backward  to  the  past,  it  points  forward  steadily  to  a 
heavenly  future:  while  it  brings  to  view  historically  the  old  Jerusalem, 
it  also  brings  into  view  the  new  and  free  Jerusalem  which  is  above, 
the  Mother  of  us  all.  Calvary  is  its  point  of  departure :  Mount  Zion 
is  its  point  of  culminating  splendor.  As  a  feast,  it  is  typical  of  the 
perpetual  feast  of 'the  redeemed  in  glory:  its  bread  and  wine  are 
emblems  of  tlie  bread  of  heaven,  and  of  that  new -wine  which  Our 
Lord  pledges  himself  to  drink  with  His  chosen  in  the  kingdom  of  His 
Father.  Like  so  many  other  elements  in  our  holy  faith,  it  has  but 
partial  realization  here,  and  is  brightly  prophetic  of  much  higher  ies- 


INFLUENCE  AND  WORTH  OF  THE  SUPPER.  67 

tivity,  of  much  nobler  fellowship,  in  that  future  toward  which  the 
Church  on  earth  is  ever  hastening. 

The  law  of  participation  in  the  Supper  is  sufficiently  indicated  by 
these  glimpses  of  its  general  nature,  and  of  the  specific  objects  sought 
in  its  institution.  Like  Baptism,  it  belongs  as  an  institution  to  the 
Church,  and  participation  in  it  is  a  voluntary  declaration,  not  merely 
of  union  with  Christ,  but  also  of  connection  with  His  visible  people. 
And  as  Baptism  presupposes  personal  faith,  at  least  in  the  adult  recip- 
ient, so  is  the  presence  of  faith  the  only  proper  requisite  and  qualifica- 
tion here.  To  baptize  without  regard  to  character  all  who  are  willing 
to  receive  such  chrism,  and  then  to  admit  such  persons,  though  unsanc- 
tified,  to  the  table  of  the  Lord  in  the  hope  that  they  may  somehow 
receive  a  mystical  grace  through  a  merely  formal  observance,  is  a 
fearful  mistake.  All  the  qualifications  which  are  requisite  to  full  mem- 
bership in  any  visible  Church,  are  indispensable  to  this  act  of  com- 
memoration. A  gracious  state  secured  beforehand  is  the  invariable 
condition,  1  Cor.  11:  27-30:  all  other  participants  can  only  eat  and 
drink  to  themselves  damnation.  On  the  other  hand,  all  who  con- 
sciously belong  to  Christ,  and  are  by  profession  within  His  visible 
Church,  and  upon  whom  no  ecclesiastical  censures  rest,  may  receive 
this  sacrament  worthily.  Instances  may  indeed  arise  in  which  the  priv- 
ilege may  be  granted  to  persons  connected  with  no  organized  Church, 
but  in  whom  the  grace  of  the  Gospel  obviously  appears.  But  the  ob- 
servance, like  Baptism,  is  churchly  in  its  nature :  and  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  those  who  openly  reject  the  fellowship  of  the  Church  in 
other  respects,  are  hardly  prepared  spiritually  for  this  signal  act  of 
communion  with  the  people  of  God.  It  is  to  open  believers,  and  to 
all  open  believers,  that  such  privilege  is  to  be  granted :  this  is  the 
comprehensive  law.  It  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  a  clear  violation 
of  the  spirit  of  the  ordinance  to  shut  out  from  it  any  true  disciple,  on 
account  of  difierences  respecting  the  three  orders  in  the  ministry,  or 
the  mode  of  baptism,  or  the  use  of  other  than  inspired  psalmody  in 
worship,  or  any  like  peculiarity  not  essential  to  salvation.  That  com- 
munion of  saints,  which  is  declared  to  be  cardinal  in  the  first  Christian 
creed,— a  phrase  which,  as  Calvin  says,  excellently  expresses  the  true 
character  of  the  Church,  is  at  once  the  legitimate  and  the  only  legiti- 
mate basis  for  fellowship  at  the  table  of  the  Lord.  ^ 

XII.  The  Lord's  Supper:  Its  Influence  and  Worth:  Other 
Kindred  Observances. — What  has  been  said  respecting  the  benefi- 
cent influence  of  Baptism  as  the  introductory  sacrament,  applies  with 
even  larger  force  to  the  Eucharist.  The  fact  that,  while  Baptism  is  to 
be  apphed  but  once,  at  the  outset,  this  is  to  be  repeated  at  intervals 

^Egbert  Hall,  Terms  of  Communion.     West.  Directory,  viii:  iv. 


68  THE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE  CTIURCn. 

throughout  tlio  earthly  life  of  the  believer,  and  may  be  administered 
even  to  the  dying  saint,  shows  how  great  value  is  placed  upon  it  by  the 
Head  of  the  Church.  As  a  unique  and  impressive  mode  of  setting 
forth  the  cardinal  truths  of  grace,  from  the  rise  and  fall  of  man  onward 
to  his  completetl  restoration  in  glory,  it  is  full  of  precious  signilicance. 
Hardly  any  essential  doctrine  fails  to  be  symbolized  in  it ;  it  is  a  jjictur- 
esquo  sermon,  in  which  the  whole  Gos})el  is  incor])orate(l.  Those  who 
share  iu  it  intelligently,  in  effect  recite  again  the  old  Christian  creeds, 
and  nuike  again  their  profession  of  belief  in  all  the  substantial  ele- 
ments of  the  system  of  grace.  It  is  also  a  silent  and  most  effectual 
monitor  as  to  personal  duty;  it  summons  the  recipient  to  careful  and 
honest  examination  of  himself,  not  merely  as  to  belief,  but  equally  as 
to  his  loyalty,  his  zeal,  his  devotion.  That  great  law  of  self-examina- 
tion Avhich  is  in  so  many  forms  laid  upon  every  disciple,  comes  to  its 
culmination  here  ;  Let  a  man  examine  himself,  is  the  divine  command, 
and  so  let  him  eat  of  that  bread  and  drink  of  that  cup;  1  Cor.  11 :  27- 
30,  1  Cor.  5:  7-8,  2  Cor.  13:  5,  Gal.  6:  3-4.  He  who  comes  to  this 
consecrated  table,  and  goes  away  from  it,  without  deepened  conceptions 
of  himscilf  as  a  sinner,  and  of  himself  as  a  discij^le  also,  has  failed  to 
derive  from  it  some  of  the  most  precious  benefits  it  was  divinely  in- 
tended to  impart. 

Viewed  iu  its  relations  to  the  Church,  this  sacrament  possesses  values 
equally  great.  As  a  feast,  it  becomes  the  basis  of  a  holy  and  happy 
fellowship,  such  as  the  company  of  the  faithful  could  iu  no  other  form 
secure.  It  is  the  great  Christian  festival  which  supersedes  the  Pass- 
over, and  all  other  Hebraic  feasts,  because  it  embodies  higher  truths, 
and  symbolizes  a  more  glorious  union.  It  tends  to  break  down  all  lines 
of  separation,  to  silence  discords  and  heal  divisions,  to  develop  the  sense 
of  mutual  dependence  and  mutual  benefit,  to  harmonize  purpose  and 
combine  iu  effort  and  sacrifice.  It  thus  makes  each  Church  in  a  more 
vital  sense  a  holy  brotherhood,  in  virtue  of  the  communion  of  the 
membership,  each  and  all,  with  the  one  divine  and  gracious  Lord. — 
In  like  manner  this  sacrament  becomes  a  most  effective  testimony,  on 
the  part  of  the  Church,  before  the  world.  It  certifies  in  a  graphic  way 
to  what  the  Church  believes,  and  is  a  tender  and  telling  invitation  to 
all  who  witness  it,  to  accept  the  dying  Savior  whose  love  it  commemo- 
rates. It  presents  religion  itself,  not  iu  a  forbidding,  but  in  a  winning 
aspect ;  the  yoke  of  discipleship  which  it  holds  up  to  view,  is  an  easy 
yoke;  the  Gospel  which  it  preaches,  sanctified  by  such  divine  sorrow, 
and  brought  home  to  the  soul  by  a  process  deeper  than  any  formal 
demonstration,  has  peculiar  power.  At  no  hour  in  its  history  is  the 
Church  more  truly  or  more  effectively  proclaiming  Christ  to  a  sinful 
world,  than  when  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  it  gathers  thus 


NO  OTHER  SACRAMENTS  NEEDFUL.  69 

around  the  cucharistic  table. — Contemplated  finally  as  an  expression 
by  the  Church  of  its  love  and  gratitude  and  loyalty  toward  Christ 
Himself,  this  festival  reveals  its  supreme  value.  It  is  indeed  an  Eu- 
charist— a  hymn  of  gratitude  to  Him  who  instituted  it,  and  whom  it  con- 
tinually maguifies  in  His  redemptive  work.  It  is  also  a  sacred  cove- 
nant, forever  binding  the  Church  afresh  in  the  bonds  of  loyalty,  and 
becoming  forever  a  fresh  stimulus  to  duty  and  sacrifice  in  His  cause. 
How  much  the  Church  owes  to  these  holy  stimulations,  and  how  much 
the  kingdom  of  God  among  men  is  dependent  for  its  advances  upon  the 
often  recurring  impulse  to  activity  Avhich  this  sacrament  brings,  the 
experience  of  the  Church  in  all  ages  bears  ample  witness.^ 

With  such  a  holy  festival  as  this,  standing  in  the  center,  and  supply- 
ing to  it  such  various  benefits,  the  Church  needs  no  other  associated 
ordinances.  The  minor  sacraments  of  Eome,  however  desirable  in 
certain  relations,  become  insignificant  in  the  contrast.  This  is  true 
also  of  the  washing  of  feet  (John  13:  1-15),  of  the  kiss  of  charity,  or 
the  holy  kiss  (Rom.  16:  16,  1  Pet.  5:  14),  and  of  the  Agape,  or  feast 
of  brotherly  love,  which  made  its  appearance  in  conjunction  with  the 
Supper  at  an  early  date  in  the  history  of  the  Apostolic  Church, 
(Acts  2 :  46)  and  which  seemed  at  one  period  likely  even  to  rival  the 
Supper  in  its  place  in  Christian  esteem.  Chrysostom  describes  the 
Agape  in  glowing  terms  as  a  custom  most  beautiful  and  most  beneficial, 
for  it  was  a  supporter  of  law,  a  solace  of  poverty,  a  moderator  of  wealth, 
and  a  discipline  of  humility.  Other  Fathers  speak  of  the  Agape  in 
similar  strains.  But  we  have  distinct  evidence  that  even  in  the  days 
of  Paul,  this  usage  was  becoming  a  source  of  spiritual  mischiefs  within 
the  Church:  1  Cor.  11:  20-22.  Jude  also  calls  attention  to  those 
who  were  foul  spots  in  these  feasts  of  charity,  feasting  themselves  with- 
out fear,  while  wholly  opposed  at  heart  to  the  spirit  and  aim  of  the 
true  faith.  Peter  also,  according  to  some  authorities,  makes  a  like 
criticism:  2  Pet.  2:  13.  While  the  sacred  Supper  was  by  degrees 
perverted  in  the  following  centuries  into  a  gorgeous  ceremonial,  void 
of  quickening  power,  this  revealed  rapidly  a  tendency  to  degenerate 
into  a  worldly  feast,  quite  at  variance  with  the  fraternal  oneness  that 
expressed  itself  so  strikingly  through  the  community  of  goods  and  in 
breaking  of  bread  from  house  to  house,  just  after  the  Pentecost.  De- 
signed at  first  to  show  forth  the  equality  of  believers,  and  the  unity  of 
the  Christian  household,  it  became  by  degrees  a  luxurious  entertain- 
ment for  the  rich  in  some  cases,  and  in  others  a  species  of  charity  to 
the  poor.     Losing  its  original  quality,  it  came  to  be  in  several  ways 

'Calvin,  Inst.,  Book  IV:  Ch.  17,  on  the  Lord's  Sapper,  and  its  Advantages; 
DwiGHT,  Sermon  160 ;  Hodge,  Syst.  Theol.  Ill :  G47-650.  Also,  Van  Oosterzee, 
DoRNER,  in  loc;  Nevin,  M>js(ical  Presence ;  Stanley,  Christian  Institutions. 


70  THE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   ClIURCTT. 

a  source  of  diversity  and  disorder  within  the  Church,  and  at  Icngtli  fell 
deservedly  into  disuse,  as  an  institution  unwarranted  l)y  the  Scriptures, 
and  unfriendly  to  religion.^ 

XIII.  OiiDiNANCES  Defined  :  Positive  Institutions. — The  third 
impersonal  constituent  of  the  Church,  closely  associated  with  the 
Sacraments,  yet  in  several  particulars  distinguishable  from  them, 
may  be  seen  in  the  Christian  Ordinances.  These  may  be  defined  as 
religious  institutions  or  appointments,  imposed  by  divine  authority, 
and  designed  to  aid  both  the  believer  and  the  Church  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  i^iety,  and  in  the  discharge  of  various  Christian  duties.  The 
cognate  phrase,  means  of  grace,  is  sometimes  employed  so  broadly  as 
to  include  the  sacraments,  or  the  Scriptures,  or  prayer,  as  well  as  these 
subordinate  institutes  of  the  Gosjiel  : — it  is  sometimes  used  to  describe 
merely  such  of  these  institutes  as  are  combined  together  in  social  wor- 
ship, as  preaching,  or  the  singing  of  hymns.  The  word,  ordinance,  is 
also  occasionally  used  as  the  equivalent  of  sacrament.  But  what  is  in- 
tended here  by  the  term  is  that  series  of  positive  appointments  pre- 
scribed in  the  Scriptures,  which  are  associated  with  the  sacraments  as 
elements  in  Christian  culture  and  service,  such  as  the  Sabbath  or  the 
Sanctuary.  These  tributary  institutions  are  not  so  directly  enforced 
as  are  the  sacraments,  by  the  formal  command  of  Christ  himself: 
neither  are  they  so  vitally  related  to  religious  experience,  or  so 
clearly  indicative  of  the  relation  of  believers  to  the  Church.  Yet  these 
statutory  regulations  are  important  in  many  ways  as  adjuncts  to  the 
maintenance  of  Christianity  in  the  world.  They  supply  an  invaluable 
array  of  conditions  and  helps  in  Christian  living :  they  furnish  time, 
and  place,  and  form  for  religion  :  they  give  meaning  and  volume  to  per- 
sonal and  social  devotion.  Though  they  are  not  so  immediately  asso- 
ciated Avith  the  Church,  they  are  still  of  inestimable  value  to  it :  with- 
out their  aid,  the  Church  could  not  adequately  sustain  its  interior  life, 
or  fulfill  its  peculiar  mission  in  the  economy  of  redemption.  Even  in 
the  Hebraic  dispensation,  we  see  such  tributary  institutes  standing 
on  every  side  as  aids  in  religious  culture  :  the  altar,  the  tabernacle, 
the  holy  times,  the  modes  of  worship,  the  prescribed  ritual,  each  and 
all  positively  enjoined,  in  order  that  through  them  the  devout  Hebrew 
might  be  brought  into  a  deeper,  richer  experience.  Under  the  Gospel, 
w'hile  Avhat  was  merely  typical  is  laid  aside,  and  while  the  formal  ele- 
ments were  reduced  in  numbers  and  prominence,  yet  the  most  essential 
among  these  institutes  w^ere  carefully  preserved  for  the  benefit  of  the 

'  "  The  growth  of  the  churches,  and  the  rise  of  manifold  abuses  led  to  the 
gradual  disuse,  and  in  the  fourth  century  even  to  the  formal  prohibition,  of  the 
Agape,  which  belonged  in  fact  only  to  the  childhood  and  first  love  of  the 
Church."     ScHAFF.  Hist.  Christ.  Church,  I  :  395. 


CHUECHLY   ordinances:    THE  SABBATH.  71 

Church  and  of  the  believer.  It  is  a  serious  error  to  suppose  that  such 
positive  ordinances  are  wholly  set  aside  in  this  later  dispensation. 
Christianity  like  Hebraism  both  possesses  and  cherishes  them  as  being, 
if  not  essential  to  salvation,  still  indispensable  to  the  healthiest  growth, 
the  finest  culture  and  development  of  the  people  of  God.  These  pos- 
itive institutions  are  four  in  number:  The  Sabbath,  a  sacred  time  :  the 
Sanctuary,  a  sacred  place :  the  Means  of  Grace,  a  sacred  cultus ;  the 
Ministry,  a  sacred  form  of  service.  A  brief  glance  at  each  of  these 
must  suffice : 

XIV.  The  Sabbath — A  Sacred  Time,  divinely  appointed,  is  seen 
at  once  to  sustain  most  vital  relations  to  the  life  and  growth  of  the 
Church.     The  following  particulars  concerning  it  may  be  briefly  noted : 

1.  It  was  instituted  primarily  at  the  Creation,  when  God  at  the  close 
of  the  sixth  day,  or  the  sixth  geologic  period,  rested  or  ceased  from  His 
creative  labor ;  Gen.  2 :  2-3.  This  passage  can  not  be  regarded  as  an- 
ticipatory merely,  by  those  who  accept  the  general  record  as  in  any  true 
sense  historic.  Traces  of  the  Sabbath  as  a  sacred  institute,  jjrobably  in 
conjunction  with  the  primal  institution  of  sacrifice,  appear  during  the 
antediluvian  era;  Gen.  4:  3,  in  the  end  of  the  days.  References  to 
periods  of  seven  days  occur  repeatedly,  as  in  Gen.  7 :  10,  8 :  10,  29  : 
27-28.  The  Week,  finding  its  origin  and  model  in  the  example  of 
God,  was  even  at  that  period  a  recognized  unit  in  time,  sustained  by 
universal  consent,  on  the  basis  of  such  divine  warrant.  ^  It  is  hardly 
possible  to  account  for  the  observance  of  this  period  among  ancient  na- 
tions, as  originating  wholly  in  natural  causes,  such  as  the  lunar 
changes.  It  is  obvious,  especially,  that  the  Israelites  regarded  the 
seventh  day  as  sacred,  before  its  formal  appointment  a  second  time  at 
Sinai;  Ex.  16:  22-26.  The  fact  of  such  antecedent  observance  both 
explains  the  form  of  the  Sinaitic  command,  Remembei',  and  sheds 
light  on  the  specific  methods  in  Avhich  such  remembrance  was  to  be 
shown.  At  Sinai  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  became  obligatory  in  a 
special  sense  (Ex.  20:  8-11,  31:  13-17),  as  commemorating  also  the 
specific  deliverance  of  the  chosen  people.  They  Avere  never  to  forget 
the  natal  day  in  their  national  existence,  but  were  to  regard  it  as  the 
fundamental  institution  on  Avhich  their  civil  organization,  and  also  their 
entire  sacrificial  system  rested ;  Deut.  5 :  12-15,  Neh.  9 :  14,  Ezek.  20  : 
10-12.  The  second  enactment,  specific  and  national  in  form,  by  no 
means  disproves  or  supplants  the  original  apjjointment  in  Paradise.  It 
is  a  frequent  process  in  the  scheme  of  grace  to  select  existing  things, 
such  as  the  rainbow,  and  to  set  them  apart  for  sacred  uses ;  and  also 
to  utilize  for  a  further  and  more  specific  purpose,  what  at  first  existed 
in  a  general  and  anticipatory  form.     To  the  devout  Hebrew  the  Sab- 

'■  Eight  Studies  on  the  Lord' s  Day:  Study  III:   The  Week. 


72  THIC   LMPEUSOXAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE   CHURCH, 

bath  was  none  the  loss  coninieniorative  of  the  stupendous  work  of  erc- 
ation,  because  it  was  the  day  ou  which  he  was  also  solemnly  and  grate- 
fully to  call  to  mind  his  marvelous  deliverance  from  the  Egyptian 
bondage.  We  sec  the  same  process  illustrated  in  the  third  enactment 
of  the  Sabbatli  under  the  Gospel,  to  commemorate  the  completion  of 
the  redemptive  work  of  Christ,  and  the  still  more  wonderful  deliver- 
ance of  the  soul  from  guilt  and  sin  through  His  grace.  As  creation 
suggested  and  involved  redemption,  so  the  rescue  of  the  Israelites  was 
designed  to  stand  as  a  grand  historic  type  of  the  salvation  which  our 
Lord  lived  and  died  and  rose  again  to  introduce.  In  its  commemora- 
tive relations  to  that  salvation,  the  day  receives  its  final  endorsement 
and  coronation. 

2.  This  threefold  instituting  of  the  Sabbath,  occurring  historically 
at  such  signal  epf)ehs,  sufficiently  indicates  the  divine  design  in  its  ap- 
pointment. It  was  the  day,  first  of  all,  in  which  man  should  call  to 
mind  the  Creator,  the  Preserver,  the  Father  and  Sovereign,  from  whom 
his  being  and  his  blessings  flowed,  and  to  whom  his  service  and  homage 
were  ever  to  be  rendei-ed.  It  was  therefore  to  be,  in  a  holy  sense,  the 
day  of  rest  from  earthly  avocations  and  engrossments, — a  day  in  which 
even  the  physical  man  might  gain  needful  repose,  and  in  which  his  so- 
cial and  moral  nature  might  attain  aj^propriatc  development.  To  the 
Israelite,  it  was  also  to  be  a  day  fraught  with  grateful  memories  of 
the  Providence  that  had  so  favored  the  Jewish  people,  and  of  that 
entire  series  of  divine  revelations  which  had  in  such  signal  manner 
attended  the  nation,  through  its  supernatural  history.  It  was  to  the 
Hebrews  a  perpetual  sermon,  full  of  doctrine  and  no  less  full  of  relig- 
ious training  and  stimulation.  To  the  Christian,  while  it  carried  along 
with  it  most  of  its  preceding  significance,  it  became  still  more  instruct- 
ive and  stimulating,  as  the  day  when  the  Messiah  rose  from  the  grave 
in  confirmation  of  the  Gospel  He  had  introduced  among  men, — when 
salvation  through  atoning  grace  was  fully  introduced,  and  the  Avay  of 
life  Avas  published  to  the  world.  The  centuries  that  have  passed  since 
the  morning  of  the  resurrection,  have  only  widened  the  purpose  and 
enlarged  the  benefits  of  this  holy  time.  Especially,  in  the  more  com- 
plex life  and  movement  of  the  period  since  the  Reformation,  the  ne- 
cessity for  such  a  positive  provision  as  this,  and  the  values  flowing  from 
it,  have  become  more  and  more  apparent.  The  design  of  the  Sabbath 
has  broadened  steadily,  as  the  ability  to  use  it  rightly  has  increased. 
To  the  Church  of  this  age  it  is  seen  to  be  indispensable  in  a  degree 
never  before  so  distinctly  realized.  The  Avorship,  the  work,  the  relig- 
ious growth  and  spiritual  influence  of  the  Church,  are  turning  more 
and  more  upon  the  Sabbath;  and  Ave  may  anticipate,  that  as  the 
Church  groAVS  more  and  more  into  its  true  place  in  the  Christian  sys- 


THE   SABBATH,  AN   ENDURING    INSTITUTE.  73 

tern,  the  Sabbath  will  become  more  and  more  precious  in  its  uses  and 
iu  its  blessings,  even  until  the  end  of  time. 

3.  That  the  Sabbath  is  to  be  an  enduring  institution  under  the  Gos- 
pel, is  apparent  not  only  from  these  glimpses  of  its  value,  but  from  what 
we  may  learn  respecting  the  divine  institution  in  its  appointment. 
Those  who  hold  that  as  a  direct  injunction  or  law,  the  Sabbath  was 
Jewish  only,  and  that  in  this  aspect  it  passed  away  Avith  the  other  cer- 
emonial functions  of  that  dispensation,  lose  sight  both  of  its  original 
enactment  at  the  creation,  and  also  of  the  permanent  values  it  pos- 
sesses as  a  time  for  reverential  commemoration  of  the  Creator,  who  is 
also  the  providential  Preserver  and  Ruler  of  all  men.  They  also  lose 
sight  of  the  solemn  significance  of  the  Sabbath  as  the  day  that  cele- 
brates that  redemptive  work  which,  as  a  revelation  of  Deity,  far  tran- 
scends creation  itself.  It  is  certainly  erroneous  to  regard  the  day  as 
obligatory  Avith  reference  only  to  the  minor,  intermediate  event  cele- 
brated at  Sinai,  while  these  two  far  greater  events  are  sustained  in 
remembrance  by  no  statutory  provision.  The  sparse  passages  some- 
times quoted  by  the  earliest  Reformers,  and  also  by  later  advocates  of 
this-lower  view  (Coll.  2:  16,  Rom.  14:  5-6,  Gal.  4:  10:  and  others), 
fall  very  far  short  of  sustaining  thein  opinion.^  They  are  abundantly 
offset  by  many  passages  showing  clearly  that  the  obligation  to  observe 
the  day  was  intended  to  be,  and  is  in  fact,  perpetual :  Isa.  56 :  6-8, 
66:  23:  in  conjunction  with  Mark  2:  27,  John  5:  16-17,  and  others. 
The  place  of  the  fourth  commandment  in  the  Decalogue  is  well-nigh 
conclusive  here.  That  the  Decalogue  in  general  was  designed  to  be  a 
moral  code  for  humanity — a  species  of  divine  basis  for  all  right  and 
just  legislation,  the  world  over,  through  all  time,  is  clear  from  the 
nature  of  the  specific  precepts  announced,  from  the  manner  and  form 
in  which  they  were  given,  from  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  and  the 
Apostles  respecting  them,  and  from  their  vital  relations  to  the  Gospel 
as  a  scheme  of  grace  for  those  who  had  violated  them.  No  just  ex- 
ception can  be  made  as  to  the  Sabbath  :  like  the  prohibition  of  idolatry, 
or  the  law  against  theft,  it  was  intended  to  be  a  law  for  humanity.  It 
is  true  that  the  manner  of  observing  the  day  has  changed ;  and  our 
Lord  himself  regards  such  change  as  admissible,  on  the  broad  princi- 
ple that  the  day  was  made  for  man:  Matt.  12  :  1-13.  This  passage 
confirms  rather  than  controverts  the  general  view  here  given.  Our 
Lord  himself  observed  the  Sabbath,  and  sanctified  it  by  such  observ- 
ance: when  He  allowed  works  of  mercy  to  be  wrought,  He  by  impli- 
cation forbade  all  other  labor.  To  interpret  His  teaching  or  that  of 
Paul  (Col.  2;  16,  22)  as  involving  an  abrogation  of  the  fourth  com- 

*  For  a  full  i)rcsentation  of  this  view,  see  Hessey,  Bampton  Lectures,  1860. 


74  THE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

maiulinent,  is  ii  serious  departure  from  his  owu  de('liiriition  lluit  He 
came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill. 

4.  The  change  of  the  Sabbath  from  the  seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  though  resting  on  no  explicit  (command,  is  justified  by  the  grand, 
consummating  event  of  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  Avhich  it  thus 
commemorates.  As  the  institution  jjointed  primarily  to  the  divine  act 
of  creation,  and  secondarily  to  that  divine  act  of  preservation  Avhich 
stands  out  so  signally  in  history  as  a  type  of  providence  overruling  all 
created  things  in  the  interest  of  grace,  so  it  now  points  to  that  divine 
act  of  salvation,  of  which  the  dying  and  the  rising  again  of  Jesus 
Christ  were  the  most  signal  incidents.  It  is  significant  that  our  Lord 
himself  introduces  the  change  by  His  repeated  manifestations  of  Him- 
self on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  during  the  forty  days  prior  to  His 
ascension.  The  Mosaic  Sabbath,  as  has  been  said,  was  not  extensible : 
it  could  not  well  be  carried  beyond  the  Jewish  boundaries,  neither 
could  it  well  express  the  universal  scope,  the  world-wide  relations,  of 
the  Gospel  economy.  The  great  fact  of  a  new  kingdom  of  grace,  com- 
prehending believers  in  all  lands  and  ages,  and  made  forever  glorious 
by  the  perpetual  presence  of  a  divine  King,  could  not  be  adequately 
set  forth  through  it.  It  pointed  too  much  to  the  past,  and  to  a  past 
which  the  Hebrew  alone  could  appreciate,  while  the  day  of  the  resur- 
rection pointed  forward  to  a  millennial  future  in  which  humanity  might 
share  together.  Hence  our  Lord  himself,  by  his  gracious  appearings 
again  and  again  on  the  first  rather  than  the  seventh  day,  not  only 
suggested  the  observance  of  the  new,  but  authorized  the  quiet  sup- 
planting and  withdrawal  of  the  old, — following  here  precisely  the  same 
method  as  in  the  introduction  of  the  Christian,  as  a  substitute  for  the 
Hebraic  Church.  In  harmony  with  this  divine  purpose,  we  find  the 
disciples,  even  before  the  ascension  (John  20:  19,  26)  and  regularly 
afterward  (Acts  2:  1,  20:  7,  1  Cor.  16:  2,  Rev.  1:  10),  assembled 
together  as  by  a  divine  Avarrant,  to  celebrate  the  day  on  which  the 
Savior  arose.  The  peculiar  title  applied  to  it,  the  Lord's  Day,  is  in- 
dicative of  their  estimate,  and  of  the  justifying  ground  on  Avhich  they 
made  the  change.  On  this  general  warrant,  which  the  Church  in  all 
subsequent  ages  has  pronounced  sufficient,  the  Christian  Sabbath  now 
stands,— justified  by  considerations  hardly  less  clear  or  strong  than 
those  on  Avhich  the  Church  itself  is  established  as  a  permanent  institu- 
tion in  the  Gospel  scheme. 

5.  Respecting  the  manner  of  observance,  common  usage  is  adequate 
to  determine  the  external  question  whether  that  observ^ance  shall  begin 
with  the  evening  of  the  seventh,  or  the  morning  of  the  first  day. 
Other  external  questions,  such  as  the  proportion  of  worship,  public  or 
private,  the  administration  of  the  family  life,  the   measure  of  social 


THE  SANCTUARY,  A  SACEED  PLACE.  75 

fellowship,  the  amount  of  personal  enjoyment  or  of  travel  admissible,  are 
also  to  be  determined  by  the  individual  conscience,  or  by  the  judgment 
of  the  household  of  faith  at  any  given  time.  Works  of  necessity,  and 
woi-ks  of  mercy  also,  are  warranted  by  the  -example  of  Christ  himself; 
Luke  13:  14-16,  Luke  6:  7-9.  But  all  labor  for  purposes  of  gain, 
and  all  employment  inconsistent  with  the  supreme  design  of  the  day, 
as  Avell  as  all  forms  of  personal  or  social  pleasure  which  tend  to  pre- 
vent the  soul  from  gaining  the  spiritual  benefits  which  the  day  was  de- 
signed to  secure,  are  by  clear  implication  forbidden.  The  question 
respecting  the  validity  or  the  extent  of  legislation,  whether  by  the 
church  or  by  the  state,  in  support  of  the  Sabbath — whether  by  speci- 
fying acts  forbidden,  or  by  enjoining  special  duties,  is  one  in  which 
only  a  general  warrant  of  Scripture  can  be  invoked.  The  main  rule 
here  is,  that  this  holy  time  is  not  to  be  observed  in  a  ritualistic  or 
pharisaic  spirit,  in  a  rigid  or  technical  temper,  but  in  a  mood  entirely 
in  harmony  with  the  great  facts  of  grace,  to  whose  reality  it  so  beauti- 
fully certifies.  If  the  Sabbath  is  for  man,  the  Sabbath  is  still  more 
obviously  for  the  Christian  and  the  Church,  and  its  observance  is  but 
one  aspect  or  condition  of  that  holy  devotion,  that  joyous  and  unAvea- 
ried  service,  which  the  Church  is  ever  offering  to  her  ascended  Lord.  ^ 
It  may  be  added  here,  that  the  Sabbath  is  the  only  sacred  time  di- 
rectly warranted  by  Scripture.  The  various  feasts  and  fasts  of  Roman- 
ism, and  the  kindred  observances  instituted  by  some  sections  of  Prot- 
estantism, may  have  sprung  from  a  right  desire  to  increase  the  religious, 
in  contrast  with  the  secular  elements  in  human  life.  But  their  ten- 
dency, like  that  of  the  Agape,  has  been  downward  habitually,  and 
what  at  first  was  holy  time,  has  too  often  become  at  last  a  holiday. 
Christmas  itself,  with  its  holy  associations,  has  come  to  be,  even  in 
Protestant  circles,  more  a  gay  carnival  than  a  holy  feast. 

XV.  Three  Associated  Ordinances  Described. — The  other  di- 
vine institutions  which  stand  in  a  relation  to  the  Church  not  unlike 
that  of  the  Sabbath,  are  the  Sanctuary  as  a  sacred  place,  the  Means  of 
Grace  as  a  sacred  cultus,  and  the  Ministry  as  a  sacred  form  of  service. 
These  may  be  considered  still  more  briefly : 

1.  The  Sanctuary,  as  a  place  sacred  to  the  worship  of  God,  existed 
in  some  form  from  the  earliest  ages.  We  indeed  see  religion  first  re- 
vealed in  the  individual  life ;  the  closet,  or  its  equivalent,  was  the  first 
temple.  Enoch  walking  Avith  God,  Abraham  alone  in  his  tent,  Isaac 
meditating  at  eventide,  Jacob  at  Bethel,  are  historic  illustrations  of 
this  primary  fact.  Yet  community  in  faith  led  early  to  community  in 
worship ;  and  around  the  rude  altars  which  were  the  first  places  of  holy 
convocation,  the  pious  met  and  shared  in  the  appointed  forms  of  de- 

'  GiLFiLLAN,  J.,  The  Sabbath;  a  good  practical  treatise. 


76  Tin:  lmpersonal  constituents  of  the  ciiuitcii. 

votiou ;  Geu.  8 :  20,  Noah;  Gen.  12:  8,  Abraham.  Suggestions  of 
such  social  worship  in  places  provided  for  the  purpose  are  found  in  the 
history  of  the  Israelites  prior  to  the  Exodus.  In  conjunction  with 
that  event,  God  made  direct  provision  for  the  Tabernacle,  as  such  a 
place  for  religious  assembling;  Ex.  25:  8-9  :  and  the  elaborateness  of 
this  provision  shows  His  estimate  of  the  importance  of  such  a  tribu- 
tary institution.  The  history  of  this  Tabernacle,  during  the  Sinaitic 
wanderings,  and  afterward  at  Gilgal  and  Shiloh  and  Gibeah,  until  its 
final  transfer  by  David  to  Mount  Ziou  (2  Sam.  6),  constitutes  a  most 
interesting  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  Hebraic  Church.  During  this 
long  period,  the  conception  of  such  a  place  in  which  God  should  espe- 
cially dwell  and  be  adored,  was  wrought  permanently  into  the  Jewish 
mind ;  the  tabernacle  became  an  indispensable  accessory  to  the  Jewish 
worship.  In  process  of  time  this  conception  was  further  realized  in 
the  Temple,  which  took  the  place  of  the  Tabernacle  as  the  recognized 
center  of  the  national  devotions — the  material  embodiment,  in  its 
amazing  splendor  and  beauty,  of  the  religious  life  of  the  people;  1 
Kings,  6  and  8.  The  second  temple  erected  in  the  days  of  Ezra, 
though  less  magnificent,  sustained  the  same  relations.  So  also,  even 
from  the  age  of  Samuel,  synagogues  arose  in  Hebrew  cities  and  villages, 
as  accessories  on  a  smaller  scale,  subservient  to  the  same  spiritual  end. 
In  the  time  of  Christ,  we  find  the  national  faith,  though  corrupted  and 
formalized,  still  erecting  appropriate  sanctuaries  in  which  it  might 
abide  as  in  a  home,  and  where  the  ancient  worship  it  still  loved  might 
receive  appropriate  expression ;  Luke  7 :  5. 

Under  the  Gospel,  the  sanctuary  sustains  a  still  more  intimate  rela- 
tion to  the  social  life  and  activity  of  the  Church.  That  deep  religious 
instinct  which  we  thus  trace  in  the  history  ol  the  people  of  Israel,  and 
which  in  its  cruder  forms  leads  men  even  under  the  impulses  of  natural 
religion  to  erect  altars,  to  consecrate  groves,  to  rear  splendid  temples, 
in  honor  of  the  deities  they  worship,  rises  to  its  culmination  in  Chris- 
tianity. The  disciples  indeed  worshiped  privately  at  first,  and  after- 
Avard  for  a  time  in  whatever  suitable  places  might  be  procured;  but  at 
length  the  sanctuary  begun  to  be  reared  everywhere  as  an  enduring 
representative,  from  Jerusalem  and  Antioch  to  Corinth  and  Rome,  of 
the  faith  whose  adherents  it  sheltered.  Such  places  are  as  essential 
adjuncts  to  church  life  as  is  the  Sabbath.  They  bring  believers  to- 
gether as  in  a  common  home :  they  stand  forth  in  society  as  a  perpetual 
invitation  to  the  unbelieving  Avorld  to  come  in  and  hear  the  truth ;  they 
constitute  a  silent,  but  most  effectual  witness  to  the  reality  of  the  re- 
ligion which  they  represent.  And  the  obligation  of  each  Church  of 
Christ  to  provide  itself  with  such  a  habitation — one  which  in  its 
structure  shall  be  conformed  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  which 


THE   MEANS    OF   GRACE,  A   SACRED   CULTUS.  77 

shall  worthily  commend  the  Gospel  to  the  interest  of  all  who  observe 
it — is  one  of  the  most  urgent  among  the  duties  which  any  such  organ- 
ization owes  to  itself,  or  to  the  holy  cause  it  maintains, 

2.  The  Means  of  Grace,  as  the  phrase  is  frequently  employed, 
are  certain  forms  or  methods  of  worship,  imposed  by  divine  authority, 
and  together  constituting  a  species  of  sacred  cultus  in  devotion.  These 
are  sometimes  called  distinctively  The  Ordinances;  Presb.  Form  of 
Gov. :  Chap.  vii.  At  the  first  they  consisted  simply  of  sacrifice  and 
prayer  ;  after  the  Exodus,  the  offering  of  praise  and  the  reading  of  the 
law  were  added ;  at  a  later  date  the  exposition  of  the  law  was  intro- 
duced; and  as  the  Sacred  Books  increased  in  number,  history  and 
prophecy  were  also  read  and  expounded  in  connection  with  the  law. 
Vocal  praise  especially  grew  into  prominence  in  the  age  of  David, 
in  conjunction  with  the  costlier  and  more  elaborate  sacrifices  then 
offered.  The  simple  ritual  of  the  tabernacle  was,  by  successive  mod- 
ifications, transmuted  into  the  gorgeous  ceremonial  of  the  temple; 
and  this  ceremonial  was  observed,  so  far  as  practicable,  through  the 
succeeding  centuries  down  to  the  era  of  our  Lord.  Not  merely  on 
special  occasions,  but  in  the  ordinary  Sabbath  Avorship,  whether  in  the 
temple  or  in  the  humble  synagogue,  these  elements  of  devotion  were 
essentially  the  same.  Numerous  illustrations  of  these  statements  may 
be  gathered  from  the  historical  portions  of  the  Old  Testament. 

While  the  early  Christians  ceased  from  sacrifices,  the  one  great  Sac- 
rifice having  been  offered,  they  retained  substantially  the  other  elements 
in  the  Hebraic  religious  cultus,  suflJusing  them  throughout  with  the 
nobler  truth  and  the  higher  temper  of  the  Gospel.  To  the  reading 
of  the  law  and  the  prophets,  they  added  the  testimony  concerning 
Christ,  and  concerning  salvation  through  Him.  As  the  evangelical 
narratives  and  the  apostolical  letters  Avere  prepared,  the  reading  and 
exposition  of  these  became  an  important  feature  in  their  social  devo- 
tions. While  prayer  and  praise  were  retained  in  accordance  with 
Jewish  usage,  the  basis  and  scope  of  prayer,  the  substance  and  the 
tone  of  praise,  were  vastly  enhanced.  The  functions  of  the  priest  and 
the  scribe  gave  way  by  degrees  to  those  of  the  Christian  preacher.  So 
throughout,  while  the  worship  of  the  Church  sprang  as  the  Church 
itself  had  done  from  Hebraism,  yet  like  the  Church  it  assumed  from 
the  first  a  broadened  form,  a  higher  quality,  in  harmony  with  the 
larger  faith  to  which  it  was  subservient.  ^  In  the  Papal  communion 
we  see  these  sacred  institutes  of  devotion,  like  the  sacraments,  overlaid 
with  showy  formalisms  wholly  at  variance  with  the  New  Test,  concep- 
tion of  worship.  We  find  a  vast,  pompous,  splendid  but  unscriptural 
liturgy  coming  into  existence,  incorporating  indeed  these  simpler  ele- 

'Schaff:   Ancient  Christianity,  I;  118.     Mosheim  :   First  Three  Centuries,  I;  185. 


78  THE   IMPERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE  CHURCH. 

raents,  but  destroying  in  large  degree  their  spiritual  n)eaning  and 
effect, — a  liturgy  in  great  measure  Judaistic  in  form,  and  capable  as  a 
spectacular  observance  of  making  deep  inn)ressi()us  on  the  beholder, 
but  with  relatively  small  power  to  spiritualize  or  to  edify.  I'rotestant- 
ism  agrees  rather  in  regarding  worship  as  consisting  of  prayer,  praise, 
and  the  reading  and  exposition  of  the  Word,  in  addition  to  the  sacra- 
ments. The  offering  of  gifts  for  church  uses  or  for  charity,  and  occa- 
sional fasting  or  thanksgiving,  and  the  administration  of  discipline,  are 
sometimes  added  to  the  list,  as  secondary  forms  of  devotion.  The  pro- 
portion of  these  elements  varies  in  different  communions,  and  at  difler- 
ent  periods;  and  the  matter  of  proportion,  like  the  matter  of  written 
or  unwritten  forms,  is  to  be  determined  in  each  instance  by  the  judg- 
ment of  the  i)articular  body.  Such  matters  as  standing  or  kneeling 
or  bowing  in  prayer,  the  use  of  Christian  hymns,  or  of  versions  of  the 
Psalms  only,  and  the  like,  may  safely  be  referred  to  the  same  court  for 
decision.  What  is  vital,  as  Protestants  affirm,  is  to  maintain  the  right 
of  each  and  all  of  these  elements  as  authorized  and  obligatory  forms  in 
worship,  and  to  set  them  all  iu  their  proper  adjunctive  relation  to  the 
spiritual  culture  of  the  Household  of  Faith. 

3.  The  Ministry,  regarded  simply  as  a  sacred  form  of  service,  may 
be  classed  among  these  impersonal  constituents  of  the  Church.  The 
conception  of  a  series  of  divinely  appointed  modes  of  offering  to  God 
social  worship,  carries  with  it  the  conception  of  an  ordained  leadership, 
through  which  the  Church  may  be  aided  in  such  joint  devotions.  The 
historic  foundations  for  such  ministerial  service  are  laid — if  we  go  back 
no  further — in  the  appointment  of  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and  also  of  the 
Levitical  order,  as  helps  to  the  Hebrew  Church  in  this  holy  task  of 
worship.  The  priestly  office  especially  Avas  an  indispensable  assistant 
in  such  a  cultus  as  that  provided  in  the  Mosaic  economy.  During  the 
theocratic  and  particularly  the  royal  era,  we  see  this  ministerial  adjunct 
growing  into  greater  prominence,  and  being  more  and  more  widely 
utilized.  The  subsequent  rise  of  the  prophetic  body,  as  accessory  in 
the  task  of  educating,  training,  rearing  the  Church,  is  another  fact  of 
the  same  class.  Without  such  a  ministry  as  this,  viewed  simply  as  a 
divine  ordinance,  not  only  would  the  Hebrew  worship  have  fallen  to 
the  ground ;  the  Sanctuary  and  the  Sabbath  would  have  lost  their  prac- 
tical value;  the  national  faith  itself  would  have  ceased  to  be  the  con- 
trolling power  we  find  it  to  have  been  throughout  the  national  history. 

Without  anticipating  the  consideration  of  the  minister  of  Christ  in 
his  personal  qualities  and  relations  to  the  Church,  we  may  here  observe 
that  the  Christian  ministry,  as  a  service,  stands  properly  among  those 
ordinances  which  in  the  divine  economy  are  made  tributary  to  the 
proper  organization,  and  even  the  healthful  existence  of  the  household  of 


THE   MINISTRY,  A   SACRED   SERVICE.  79 

faith.  This  ministry  is  in  the  new  dispensation  all  that  the  priesthood 
was  in  the  old.  The  mode  of  election  to  it  varies; — the  service  is  no 
longer  hereditary.  The  call  to  that  service  is  more  distinctly  spirit- 
ual; it  involves  a  deeper  experience  of  religion,  higher  natural  endow- 
ments, clearer  providential  indications,  and  profounder  spiritual  mov- 
ings  toward  the  service.  No  anointing  Avith  oil  by  the  hand  of  some 
antecedent  priest  is  essential ;  it  is  the  Church  itself  which  bestows  the 
requisite  endorsement.  So  the  functions  united  together  in  this  con- 
crete ministry  are  higher.  None  but  spiritual  sacrifices  are  now  to  be 
offered;  prayer  and  praise  are  to  be  presented,  not  for  the  people,  but 
with  the  people ;  the  law  is  to  be  enforced  from  a  different  plane  of 
authority,  and  the  Gospel  is  a  message  to  be  announced  in  a  spirit  and 
method  in  harmony  with  its  own  nature.  But  such  a  ministry  is  no 
less  essential  to  the  Christian  than  the  priesthood  was  to  the  Hebraic 
Church,  but  rather  infinitely  more.  The  sanctuary  is  of  less  moment; 
the  Sabbath  is  hardly  more  vital.  Even  the  sacraments,  contemplated 
in  their  peculiarly  close  relations  to  the  church  life,  are  dependent  on 
the  existing  of  such  an  office  as  this.  A  church  without  such  a  form 
of  service  within  it,  can  be  in  only  a  very  inadequate  sense  a  Church 
of  Christ. 

With  these  glimpses  of  the  Ministry  and  the  Means  of  Grace,  of  the 
Sanctuary  and  the  Sabbath,  viewed  as  so  many  adjunctive  institutes  or 
ordinances,  our  review  of  the  impersonal  constituents  of  the  Church 
may  be  terminated.  No  other  kindred  ordinances  or  institutions  can 
be  added  to  the  list.  The  tendency  to  question  the  authoritativeness  or 
sacredness  of  these,  and  the  disposition  to  add  to  their  number  any 
human  contrivances  in  the  interest  of  religion,  are  alike  to  be  con- 
demned. The  Church  needs  no  other  sacred  time  or  place — no  other 
sacred  worship  or  service.  Equipped  with  such  tributary  institutes, 
and  blessed  as  we  have  seen  Avith  its  two  great  sacraments,  and 
with  a  compact  and  adequate  array  of  inspired  doctrines,  the  Church 
is  beyond  doubt  abundantly  qualified  of  God  for  that  sacred  mission 
to  which  it  is  appointed — a  mission  of  grace,  Avide  as  the  Avorld  in 
scope,  and  extending  in  time  doAvn  to  the  millennial  age. 


80  THE   I'EKSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE  CHURCH. 

CHAPTER  ni. 
THE  PERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH: 

ITS  ME>IBERS,   ITS   OFFICERS. 

The  impersonal  constituents  of  the  Church,  considered  in 
the  previous  chapter,  exist  only  for  the  sake  of,  and  in  tribu- 
tary connection  with,  its  personal  constituents.  Doctrines, 
Sacraments,  Ordinances,  find  their  value  solely  in  the  relations 
they  sustain  to  the  persons  who  compose  the  Church.  "What- 
ever in  that  divine  organization  is  external  and  formal,  must 
be  viewed  always  as  accessory  merely  to  what  is  interior  and 
vital.  The  Personal  Element  is  of  necessity  supreme  and 
controlling.  This  element  may  properly  be  divided  into  the 
two  classes,  the  Members  and  the  Officers,  associated  together 
in  the  Church. 

I.  The  Personal  Element  Supreme. — The  natural  tendency  to 
exalt  the  Church  as  a  great  external  organism,  at  the  expense  of  the 
persons  associated  in  it — to  set  the  institution  above  the  individual,  and 
to  subordinate  his  convictions,  his  interests,  and  even  his  rights  to  its 
domination,  is  one  frequently  appearing  in  ecclesiastical  history.  Church 
doctrines,  for  illustration,  especially  when  moulded  into  confessional 
form,  are  often  imposed  upon  believers  to  an  extent  for  which  there  is  no 
warrant  whatever,  either  in  the  Scriptures,  or  in  the  nature  of  the  or- 
ganization that  imposes  them.  Church  sacraments  and  ordinances 
have  in  like  manner  been  often  robed  with  assumed  authoritativeness, 
and  pressed  as  obligatory,  in  ways  equally  unwarranted,  and  equally 
hurtful  to  the  souls  of  men.  The  Church  is  regarded  by  virtue  of  a  cer- 
tain divine  right  as  prescribing  faith,  ceremony,  service ;  and  obedience 
and  submission,  constant  and  absolute,  are  declared  to  be  the  supreme 
duty  of  all  who  dwell  within  its  communion.  In  the  Church  of  Rome 
we  find  this  tendency  embodying  itself  in  a  dominating  priesthood,  to 
whose  rule  all  private  members  are  supposed  to  be  made  subject  by 
divine  arrangement,  and  whose  great  function  it  is  supposed  to  be  to 
enforce  the  prerogatives  and  prescripts  of  the  Church  as  absolute,  on 
every  one  who  owns  allegiance  to  it.  In  some  branches  of  Protestant- 
ism we  see  this  tendency  manifesting  itself  in  milder,  but  equally  un- 
warranted forms :  we  see  the  organization  exalted  into  an  undue  place 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  SUPREME.  81 

in  the  Christian  scheme,  invested  with  an  undue  measure  of  authorita- 
tiveness,  and  thus  transformed  sometimes  into  an  instrument  of  tyran- 
nical usurpation.  The  institution  is  set  far  above  the  person,  and  even 
above  the  whole  body  of  persons  who  are  united  in  it;  the  organism 
is  made  superior  to  the  life  that  vitalizes  it ;  and  the  result  is  too  often 
a  sj^ecies  of  Vaticanism  hardly  less  unworthy  than  that  of  Rome  itself. 
A  slight  consideration  of  the  question  will  be  sufficient  to  make 
clear  the  dangerous  errors  underlying  all  such  ecclesiasticism,  whether 
Roman  or  Protestant.  The  relative  estimate  which  our  Lord  himself 
placed  upon  what  is  impersonal  and  what  is  personal  in  Christianity, 
is  an  adequate  guide  at  this  point.  His  declarations  concerning  the 
value  of  the  soul,  His  sedulous  ministries  to  the  souls  of  men.  His 
plan  of  salvation  for  souls  through  personal  union  with  Himself,  all 
conspire  to  show  that  in  His  view  the  exterior  elements  of  the  Gospel 
derived  whatever  worth  they  possessed  from  their  perceived  relations 
to  this,  the  supreme  aim  and  end  of  His  redemptive  scheme.  The 
Soul  was  always  held  by  Him  far  above  the  Church,  viewed  as  an  in- 
stitution merely.  And  as  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  so  in  His  esti- 
mate all  other  ordinances,  each  of  the  sacraments,  and  every  doctrine 
He  proclaimed,  were  made  for  man,  and  found  their  supi'eme  use  in  the 
influence  they  exerted  upon  his  spiritual  life.  There  can  be  little  ques- 
tion that  the  Apostles  held  the  same  view,  and  acted  on  the  same  high 
principle,  in  their  organizing  of  the  Church,  and  in  their  enforcement 
of  the  several  institutes  and  observances  incorporated  with  it.  While 
they  taught  on  the  one  hand  a  due  subordination  of  the  individual 
believer  to  his  brethren  in  the  Lord,  and  while  they  maintained 
absolutely  the  right  of  the  Church  to  administer  the  Christian  sac- 
raments, and  to  enforce  obedience  to  right  law,  even  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  unworthy,  they  never  exalted  the  Church  unduly  :  they 
never  enforced  its  claims  or  prerogatives  in  a  dominating  spirit.  In 
their  view,  the  disciple  was  higher  than  the  institution, — the  personal 
element  rose  above,  and  properly  subordinated  to  itself,  all  that  was 
impersonal  merely.  And  in  the  teaching  and  course  of  Christ,  and 
of  those  who,  under  His  guidance,  gave  shape  to  the  primitive  Church, 
we  may  easily  learn  the  universal  and  the  perpetual  law.  That  Church 
is  not  a  mechanism  or  a  crystallization,  but  rather  a  vital  organism 
instinct  with  personal  life.  Within  its  sacred  enclosure,  and  under 
its  gracious  influence,  the  human  soul  is  to  hear  and  accept  divine 
truth,  to  be  anointed  and  sealed  through  the  sacraments,  to  be  cultured 
and  stimulated  through  the  means  of  grace  into  vigorous  spiritual  life. 
In  a  word,  it  is  the  Personal  Element  which  renders  all  impersonal 
elements  worthy,  and  which  above  all  else  should  make  the  Church 
itself  glorious  in  our  eyes. 


82  THE   I'EIISONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OE   THE   CIILT.CII. 

II.  Ciiuncn  iMEMBEnsiiip :  PnELiMiNAnv  View. — AVhat  has  been 
said  already  respecting  the  true  conception  of  the  Church,  will  .«crvc 
to  show  that  membership  in  it  must  be  obtained  by  methods  in  har- 
mony with  the  nature  of  the  organization.  Individuals  arc  not  to  be 
born  into  it  2:)reciscly  as  they  are  born  into  the  family,  or  made  mem- 
bers iu  it  precisely  as  they  come  into  connection  with  the  state  within 
whose  territory  they  have  their  birth.  The  connection  in  this  instance 
is  not  natural  but  spiritual, — piety  is  its  essential  basis  and  justifica- 
tion. And  as  fiiith  is  an  active  principle  iu  the  soul,  the  connection 
which  faith  establishes,  must  be  voluntary, — the  outgrowth,  not  of 
nature,  but  of  gracious  choice.  The  Church  is  built  essentially  on  this 
foundation.  The  chosen  generation,  the  royal  priesthood,  the  holy 
nation,  the  peculiar  people,  to  whom  Peter  refers  in  such  glowing 
terms,  are  persons  who  have  been  called  out  of  the  darkness  of  nature 
into  the  marvelous  light  of  grace — called  out  also  from  the  darkness 
of  their  natural  relations  into  the  light  and  glory  of  the  household  of 
faith,  in  order  that  they  might  through  such  attained  piety  show  forth 
the  praises  of  Him  who  has  granted  them  this  spiritual  calling.  The 
same  conclusion  is  reached,  if  we  contemplate  the  end  or  design  of  the 
Church,  whether  toward  God  as  iu  worship,  or  toward  man  as  in  testi- 
mony. These  imply  a  voluntai-y  and  active  connection,  based  on  moral 
predispositions,  as  their  proper  condition.  True  worship  is  indeed  spon- 
taneous, but  not  in  the  sense  in  which  the  singing  of  birds  is:  it  is 
rather  the  spontaneous  outflow  of  a  will  thoroughly  absorbed  in  God, 
and  inwardly  devoted  t;)  His  glory.  And  the  only  testimony  to  which 
the  world  listens  receptively,  is  the  testimony  which  breaks  forth  from 
hearts  that  are  freely  surrendered  to  Christ,  and  that  find  supreme 
delight  in  witnessing  to  Him. 

Hence  all  notions  of  church  membership  which  ignore  the  active, 
voluntary,  holy  personality  that  must  pervade  it — which  find  analo- 
gies rather  in  those  merely  natural  relations  into  which  without  choice 
or  purpose  of  our  own  we  are  born,  must  be  set  aside  as  inadequate. 
It  is  impossible  that  the  administration  of  baptism,  whether  to  an  infant 
or  to  an  adult,  or  the  mere  manducation  of  the  sacred  emblems  in  the 
Eucharist,  can  entitle  the  recipient  to  a  j)lace  in  this  divine  household. 
Nor  can  any  enactment  of  the  state,  or  any  payment  of  tithes  imposed 
by  law,  or  any  ecclesiastical  declarations,  however  comprehensive,  in- 
stitute such  a  connection.  Even  in  the  Hebraic  dispensation,  the  dis- 
tinction between  membership  in  the  nation  and  membership  in  the 
church  inevitably  worked  itself  into  prominence,  and  in  the  latter 
portion  of  the  period  became  still  more  prominent.  Under  the  Gospel, 
the  maintenance  of  such  a  distinction,  is  vital  to  the  entire  conception 
of  the  Church;  to  deny  it  would  be  to  Judaize  our  Christianity.     In 


MEMBERSHIP   IN   THE  PEIMITIVE    CHURCH.  80 

holding  this  view,  it  is  not  needful  to  ignore  the  peculiar  place  which 
the  pious  household  sustains  in  the  plan  of  grace,  or  to  refuse  to  the 
children  of  believers  any  manner  of  connection  with  the  Church.  But 
the  general  law  of  niembershiiD  remains  undisturbed;  the  bond  of  union 
must  ever  be  spiritual.  What  disastrous  consequences  follow  every 
deviation  from  this  principle,  on  whatever  side,  will  be  apparent  from 
a  brief  survey  of  the  theories  of  membership  which  have  been  held 
within  the  various  sections  of  Christendom. 

III.  Membership  in  the  Primitive  Church. — Reverting  first  to 
the  Church  Apostolic,  wc  see  at  once  that,  just  as  the  disciples  found 
the  proper  norm  or  form  of  the  new  organization  in  the  Jewish  syna- 
gogue, so  they  found  the  spiritual  basis  of  that  organization  in  the 
piety,  or  the  faith,  which  had  been  the  recognized  foundation  of  both 
the  Patriarchal  and  the  Hebrew  Church.  They  knew  already  that  all 
were  not  the  true  Israel  Avho  were  of  Israel  externally,  but  only  those 
who  by  the  possession  of  a  kindred  experience  had  become  in  heart  the 
children  of  faithful  Abraham.  The  transient  organization  which  John 
the  Baptist  had  set  up  on  the  basis  of  sincere  repentance,  and  of  obe- 
dience to  righteous  law,  had  doubtless  emphasized  the  lesson  which  both 
the  teaching  of  the  prophets,  and  the  course  of  the  national  history,  had 
enforced.  What  our  Lord  had  taught  them  respecting  religion  as  a 
matter  of  heart  and  spirit  primarily,  respecting  the  true  nature  of 
repentance  and  conversion,  respecting  the  quickening  influence  of 
faith,  and  its  power  to  transform  the  whole  man  into  likeness  to  Him- 
self, had  rendered  it  impossible  that  they  should  contemplate  church 
membership  as  having  any  other  than  a  spiritual  foundation.  And 
when  they  came  to  contemplate  the  great  truth,  that  the  Church  they 
were  organizing  was  to  include  Gentile  as  well  as  Hebrew, — all  men 
of  all  nations  who  would  heartily  receive  and  follow  the  Messiah— this 
impossibility  became  a  thousand  fold  more  distinct  and  more  decisive. 
In  such  an  organism,  none  other  than  the  religious  qualifications  of  which 
the  faith  of  Abraham  was  both  forerunner  and  symbol,  could  have 
been  introduced. 

Hence  we  find  the  recognized  basis  of  membership  in  the  Apostolic 
Church,  to  be  simply  an  avowed  and  authenticated  belief  in,  and  ac- 
ceptance of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Redeemer  of  men.  The  record  fur- 
nished in  the  earlier  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Acts  is  decisive  on  this 
point.  The  message  of  Peter  at  the  Pentecost  was  the  message  of 
the  whole  body  of  disciples :  Repent,  believe,  be  baptized  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins,  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  enter  heartily  on  the  new 
life  He  imparts.  Those  who  received  his  word,  and  they  only,  were 
baptized  ;  those  who  were  baptized,  continued  in  the  doctrine  and  fel- 
lowship of  the  new  organization ;  and  the  Lord  added  to  it  day  by 


84  THE  PERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE  CHURCH. 

(lay  those  that  were  being  saved.  From  the  rule  tluis  estahlislied  at 
the  outset,  the  apostles  never  swerved.  Whatever  disposition  naturally 
-remained  to  cling  to  the  old  national  test,  and  to  give  the  Hebrew,  if 
not  an  exclusive  right,  still  a  special  eminence  within  the  household  of 
faith,  seems  to  have  disappeared  almost  wholly  after  the  experience  of 
Peter  at  Samaria,  and  the  introduction  of  the  Gentile  into  full  mem- 
bership. That  parties  should  have  arisen,  either  from  the  natural  as- 
sumption of  supremacy  by  the  Jewish  converts,  or  from  the  natural 
jealousy  of  converts  from  other  nationalities,  is  certainly  not  surprising. 
But  the  obvious  fact  is,  that  no  serious  attempt  was  made  in  any 
quarter  to  reduce  the  standard  and  test  of  membership  which  the 
miraculous  events  of  the  Pentecost  had  set  up,  or  to  exclude  any 
persons  of  any  class  in  whom  the  evidence  of  true  disciplcship  appeared. 
That  unconverted  persons  sometimes  became  members,  on  their  pro- 
fession of  faith  and  acceptance,  is  made  clear  by  the  instance  of  Ananias 
and  Sapphira,  and  of  Simon  of  Samaria;  Acts  5:  1-10,  8:  13-24. 
But  we  have  abundant  proof  in  the  letters  of  both  Paul  and  John, 
and  of  Peter  and  James  also,  that  such  instances  were  viewed  as 
wholly  exceptional ;  and  that  the  young  Church  was  made  by  such  ter- 
rible illustrations  still  more  strenuous  in  insisting  upon  the  spiritual 
standard  already  described.  It  is  needless  to  refer  to  specific  evi- 
dences of  this  fact.  The  frequent  warnings  against  hypocrisy  and 
delusion,  the  strong  injunctions  to  the  exercise  of  faith,  and  4;o  the 
culture  of  a  genuine  Christian  life,  the  assertion  of  the  right  of  the 
Church  to  administer  discipline,  and  the  actual  expulsion  of  persons 
found  to  fall  short  of  the  standard  prescribed,  show  decisively  the 
spiritual  principle  on  which  the  apostolic  churches  were  planted. 

It  is  a  familiar  fact  in  ecclesiastical  history,  that  this  standard 
remained  without  challenge,  until  the  persecutions  of  the  second  and 
third  centuries  on  one  side,  and  the  rapid  development  of  worldliness 
within  the  Church  on  the  other,  gave  occasion  for  a  more  exact  analy- 
sis and  exposition  of  the  primitive  terms  of  membership.  It  was  per- 
haps inevitable  that,  under  these  two  adverse  influences,  the  simple 
but  searching  test  of  the  apostolic  age  should  give  way  to  more  exter- 
nal or  formal  conceptions  of  church  connection.  As  an  offset  to  this 
downward  tendency,  INIontanism  appeared  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
second  century,  not  merely  insisting  upon  such  thorough  application 
of  the  biblical  rule  as  would  exclude  any  and  all  w'ho  might  be  un- 
believers, but  also  setting  up  an  extraordinary  standard  of  holiness,  to 
which  but  few"  among  genuine  disciples  could  attain.  The  tw'o  noted 
schisms  of  Felicissimus  at  Carthage,  and  of  Novatian  at  Rome,  in  the 
third  century,  originating  in  the  endeavor  to  exclude  finally  from  the 
Church  all  who  had  lapsed  under  persecution,  were  also  movements  in 


MEIVIBERSHIP :    GREEK   AKD    PAPAL   VIEW.  85 

the  interest  of  stricter  adherence  to  the  apostolic  standard.  Donatism, 
rising  into  prominence  in  the  fourth  century  as  a  further  protest 
against  the  looseness  and  the  imperialism  current  in  the  Church,  in 
like  manner  took  high  ground  not  merely  against  those  who  had  proven 
unworthy,  but  also  in  favor  of  the  most  rigid  scrutiny  of  the  spiritual 
state  and  the  personal  confession  of  all  who  sought  church  membership. 
Amid  many  extravagances,  and  even  serious  errors  as  to  the  real  nature 
of  the  Christian  life,  these  parties  were  striving  to  maintain,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  prevailing  downward  tendencies,  the  doctrine  and  practice  of 
the  early  disciples.  But  these  tendencies  Avere  too  strong  to  be  re- 
sisted. Even  Augustine  took  ground  against  Donatism  as  a  fanatical 
and  impracticable  extreme :  and  became  the  representative  advocate 
of  the  more  formal,  less  searching  view  of  discipleship.  To  him  we 
probably  owe  the  first  special  emphasizing  of  the  distinction  between 
the  visible  Church  and  the  Church  invisible,  with  its  natural  conse- 
quent in  the  more  definite  exaltation  of  the  outward  profession,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  spiritual  faith  professed.  ^  Under  such  advocacy, 
the  Church  came  to  be  contemplated  more  and  more  as  an  external 
society,  and  connection  with  it  involved  little  more  than  a  declaration 
of  belief  in  Christianity.  In  resisting  the  teaching  of  the  stricter 
school,  which  indeed  was  often  extreme  and  impractical,  and  some- 
times wildly  fanatical,  the  Church  gradually  lost  its  hold  of  the  New 
Testament  doctrine,  and  fell  away  into  a  grosser  view — the  precursor 
of  that  still  more  serious  departure,  whose  historical  outcome  was  the 
Church  of  Rome. 

IV.  Greek  and  Papal  View  of  Ciiuech  Membership. — From 
the  fifth  to  the  sixteenth  century,  this  superficial  theory  of  membership, 
harmonizing  so  well  with  other  formal  tendencies  in  both  the  Eastern 
and  the  Western  Churches,  excluded  almost  entirely  the  primitive 
doctrine.  As  the  Church  came  to  be  regarded  more  and  more  as  a 
visible  organism,  with  a  fixed  geographic  center,  whether  at  Constanti- 
nople or  Rome,  and  with  an  authoritative  head,  Avhether  patriarch  or 
pope, — as  the  ministry  came  to  be  viewed  as  a  priesthood  through 
whose  touch  all  grace  must  flow,  and  the  sacraments  were  esteemed  as 
mystical  instrumentalities  for  the  conferring  of  that  grace  which  the 
Church  was  supposed  to  contain,  much  as  a  goblet  contains  wine,  it 
was  inevitable  that  saving  faith  in  Christ,  as  exercised  prior  to  all  ex- 
ternal profession,  should  sink  gradually  out  of  sight.     Men  came  to 

'  "There  are  many  reprobates  mingled  with  the  good,  and  both  are  gathered 
togetlier  by  the  Gospel  as  in  a  drag-net :  and  in  this  world,  as  in  a  sea,  both  swim 
enclosed  without  distinction  in  the  net,  until  it  is  brought  ashore,  when  the 
wicked  must  be  separated  from  the  good,  that  in  the  good,  as  in  His  temple,  God 
may  be  all  in  all."  Civitas  Dei:  Book  18:  49.  For  the  history  of  these  strug- 
gles, see  Mosheim,  Neander,  Gieseler,  Hase,  in  loc. 


86  TiiK  ncnsoxAL  constituents  of  the  ciiuncii. 

tlic  Church,  ^vithout  relicjious  oxporienco  of  any  sort,  to  receive  a 
blcs:?ing  which  the  Church  alone  couUl  confer.  Ciiildron  came  into 
the  fold  through  baptism,  and  the  membership  thus  instituted  was  never 
dissolved,  except  in  cases  of  grievous  heresy  or  of  extraordinary  crime. 
The  outward  confession  was  the  only  requisite  needful :  the  inward 
basis  and  justification  of  such  confession,  as  defined  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, was  no  longer  required ;  and  the  Church  was  consequently  filled 
with  those  who  merely  received  its  formal  chrism,  and  were  content 
with  proclaiming  before  men  their  formal  allegiance,  not  to  Christ,  but 
to  Christianity. 

As  the  Greek  and  the  Romish  teachings  differ  but  slightly,  we  may 
find  sufficient  illustration  of  the  error  common  to  both,  in  the  author- 
ized declarations  of  the  latter  communion.  The  Komau  Catechism  of 
1566,  (I:  10,  7-8)  recognizes  the  distinction  between  the  good  and  the 
unworthy,  by  describing  the  former  class  as  bound  and  joined  together 
within  the  Church,  not  only  by  the  profession  of  faith  and  communion 
in  the  sacraments,  but  also  by  the  spirit  of  grace,  and  the  tie  of  charity. 
But  it  also  declares  that  both  classes  are  properly  included  within  the 
Church,  and  are  to  be  allo^ved  there,  as  the  chaff  is  permitted  to  grow 
among  the  wheat.  Bellarmine,  Ecdes.  JlfnYfY. ,  Chap,  ii,  defines  the  church 
as  a  company  of  men,  Avho  profess  the  Christian  ftiith,  and  are  bound 
together  by  participation  in  the  sacraments,  under  the  government  of 
authorized  pastors,  the  Roman  Pontiff  as  vicar  of  Christ  on  earth  being 
supreme.  The  first  of  these  three  qualificatious  in  his  view  excludes 
all  infidels,  all  Jew^s,  Turks  and  Pagans,  and  all  heretics  and  apostates ; 
the  second  excludes  all  catechumens  who  have  not  received  the  eucha- 
rist,  and  all  excommunicated  persons  ;  and  the  third  shuts  out  all  schis- 
matics who  may  possess  the  true  faith  and  the  sacraments,  but  still  are 
not  under  the  divinely  ordained  government  of  the  priesthood.  He 
emphasizes  these  qualifications  as  external  and  visible — setting  them 
over  against  the  Protestant  demand,  as  he  defines  it,  that  internal  vir- 
tues are  requisite  to  constitute  church  membership ;  and  finally  declares 
that  the  Church  is  a  body  of  men  as  visible  and  palpable  as  the  assem- 
bly of  the  Roman  people,  or  the  kingdom  of  Fj-ance,  or  the  reiDublic 
.of  Venice. 

That  this  is  a  wide  and  disastrous  departure  from  the  doctrine  of  the 
Apostolic  age,  will  be  obvious  at  a  glance.  The  sources  of  the  error 
are  easily  seen  in  the  deceptive  notion  of  organic  visibility,  in  the 
false  conception  of  the  priesthood,  in  the  kindred  error  concerning  the 
sacraments  as  elements  of  grace,  and  in  the  crude  and  low  views  of 
Christian  character,  accepted  everywhere  in  the  Papal  Church.  Its 
harmful  consequences  are  seen  as  easily  in  the  merely  external  profes- 
sions allowed,  and  in  the  wholly  unspiritual  relationship  sustained  by 


MEMBERSHIP   AT   THE   REFORMATION.  87 

multitudes  within  that  communion.  And  no  ai'gument  more  conclusive 
or  crushing  against  this  theory  can  be  needful  than  that  which  is  fur- 
nished directly  in  the  history  of  Romanism  since  the  Keformation,  and 
in  the  present  spiritual  condition  of  the  Papal  Church.  Oriental  Chris- 
tianity, misled  in  the  same  way,  opening  its  doors  to  all  who  will  ac- 
knowledge its  ecclesiastical  authority  and  submit  themselves  to  its  sacra- 
mental discipline,  shows  still  more  painfully  in  its  multii^lied  formalisms 
and  in  its  utter  deadness  spiritually,  how  disastrous,  how  fatal  this 
error  as  to  the  law  of  church  membership  is.  Certainly,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  build  up  a  true  Church  of  Christ  on  such  foundations;  if  the 
external  tests  of  admission  have  no  profound  spiritual  basis,  no  vital 
experience  of  saving  grace  to  rest  upon,  they  became  of  necessity  a 
mischievous  formality,  a  deadly  snare. 

V.    Protestant  Doctrine  op  Membership  after  the  Refor- 
mation.— Passing  over  from  the  view  current  in  the  Greek  and  Roman 
communions,    to   the    general   teaching   of  Protestantism,    especially 
during  the  century  following  the  Reformation,  we  fail  to  find  in  that 
teaching  any  really  adequate  recognition  of  the  primitive   doctrine. 
The  comprehensive  declaration  of  Hugo,  that  the  true  Church  is  the 
Multitudo  Fidelium,  and  of  Savonarola,  that  the  true  Church  is  com- 
posed of  all  those  who  are  united  in  the  bonds  of  love  and  of  truth  by 
the  grace  of  the  Spirit,  were  indeed  accej^ted,  and  incorporated  sub- 
stantially into  the  newly  formed  Protestant  Creeds.     The  French  Con- 
fession of  1559,  for  example,  defines  the  Church  (Art.  xxvii)  as  the 
company  of  the  faithful  who  agree  to  follow  the  Word  of  God,  and 
the  pure  religion  which  it  teaches :  who  grow  in  grace  all  their  lives, 
believing  and  becoming  more  and  more  confirmed  in  the  fear  of  God. 
This  Confession  admits  that  there  may  be  hypocrites  and  re2:)robates 
among  the  faithful,  but  declares  that  their  wickedness  can  not  destroy 
the  title  of  the  Church, — a  title  which  rests  on  the  spiritual  reception 
of  the  Word  and  of  the  holy  Sacraments.    The  Confession  of  Augsburg 
in  like  manner  describes  the  Church  (Art.  vii)  as  the  congregation  or 
assembly  of  the  saints,  or  of  believers ;  in  which  the  Gospel  is  rightly 
preached,  and  tlie  sacraments  are  rightly  administered.  ^     Most  of  the 
Symbols  of  the  period  make  similar  declarations,  yet  there  was  evident 
shrinking,  in  many  cases,  from  the  full  application  of  the  spiritual  and 
searching  principle  avowed.     Various  influences  conspired  to  prevent 
such  application.     IMany  persons  doubtless  united   with  the  several 
Protestant  bodies,  merely  as  a  form  of  declaration  against  the  Church 
of  Rome,  or  as  an  expression  of  their  adherence  to  the  general  princi- 
ples, such  as  the  right  of  religious  freedom  and  of  the  private  inter- 

'  In  the  edition  of  1540 :  Congregatio  membrorum  Christ!,  hoc  est,  Sanctorum, 
qui  vcre  crcdnnt  ct  ohcdiunt  Christo.    Schaff.  Vol.  ill :  13.    Sec  also  Conf.  Basle,  Art.  5. 


88  THK   TERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

pretatioii  of  Scripture,  on  uliich  rrote.^tanti^m  rested.  Agalu,  in 
many  luinils  an  intelloctual  acceptance  of  tlie  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith,  iu  contrast  with  tiic  Romisli  theory  of  justification  througli 
works  imposed  by  the  priesthood,  was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  substitute 
for  liearty  faith  in  Christ  Himself  as  a  personal  Ivedeemer.  Moreover, 
the  dialectic  disputations  among  the  Keformers  on  questions  largely 
speculative,  and  the  multiplication  of  creeds  to  express  slight  differ- 
ences, turned  the  thoughts  of  many  away  from  the  more  vital  matter 
of  belief  and  trust  in  the  Savior.  To  these  causes  may  be  added  the 
entangling  alliance  everywhere  existing  between  the  Church  and  the 
State, — an  alliance  which  divided  widely  the  provinces  of  Central 
Europe  into  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  which  tended  everywhere  to 
obliterate  the  distinction  between  political  citizenship  and  church 
membership. 

In  addition  to  these  general  hindrances  to  a  full  return  to  the  New 
Testament  doctrine,  Ave  may  note  the  special  influence  of  the  views 
then  current  with  respect  to  infant  baptism,  to  the  jilace  and  rights 
of  children  within  the  Church,  and  to  the  spiritual  efficacy  of  the 
sacraments.  The  Eomish  usage  of  confirmation  was  substantially 
retained  by  both  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  bodies :  the  recitation 
of  the  Commandments,  and  of  the  Creeds  and  Catechisms,  Avas  widely 
accepted  as  a  sufficient  qualification  for  communion.  Though  Christ 
Himself  was  regarded  as  the  source  and  giver  of  salvation,  yet  con- 
nection with  the  Church  and  participation  in  the  sacraments  Avere  too 
often  contemplated  as  steps  toAvard  rather  than  signs  of  sah'ation ;  and 
if  such  connection  Avas  accompanied  by  general  propriety  in  conduct, 
or  the  absence  of  heinous  sin,  it  Avas  too  often  held  to  be  sufficient. 
Among  the  Lutheran  bodies  little  more  than  this  Avas  insisted  upon : 
and  even  the  Reformed,  uotAvithstanding  their  general  inclination 
tOAvard  greater  stringency  in  such  directions,  Avere  disposed  to  condemn 
those  advocates  of  a  more  stringent  A'ieAv,  Avhom  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession stigmatizes  as  Donatists  and  such  like.  Cah'in  himself  regards 
all  as  entitled  to  membership  Avho,  by  confession  of  faith,  regularity  in 
conduct,  and  participation  iu  the  sacraments,  acknoAvledge  God  and 
Jesus  Christ.  He  indeed  pronounces  it  a  disgrace,  if  persons  of  im- 
moral life  occupy  a  place  among  the  people  of  God,  and  declares  that 
if  churches  are  Avell  regulated,  they  Avill  not  suffer  persons  of  abandoned 
character  among  them,  or  admit  the  Avorthy  and  nuAvorthy  promis- 
cuously to  the  table  of  the  Lord.  Yet  he  lays  large  stress  on  Avhat  he 
styles  the  judgment  of  charity  in  regard  to  all  such  persons,  and  laments 
the  imperfection  of  the  times,  as  shown  in  the  inability  of  the  churches 
to  exercise  discipline,  even  in  the  case  of  gross  offenders.  ^ 

*  Calvin,  Inst.  Book  iv :  Chap.  1 :  15. 


membership:    formal   PROTESTANT    VIEW.  89 

VI,  Current  Opinion  among  Protestants:  The  Formal 
View. — Without  dwelling  upon  the  multiplied  illustrations  of  the 
Protestant  doctrine  of  church  membership  during  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  or  on  the  defective  usages  which  sprang  np  in 
consequence  within  the  various  Protestant  communions,  we  may  turn 
at  once  to  consider  existing  opinions  among  those  who  together  Avear 
the  Protestant  name.  These  opinions  may  with  sufficient  exactness  be 
thrown  into  two  main  classes :  those  which  lay  stress  chiefly  on  the  ex- 
ternal or  formal  relationship,  and  those  which  emphasize  especially  a 
change  of  heart  through  grace,  and  a  conscious  Christian  experience  and 
life,  as  the  essential  condition  of  membership.  Of  these  the  formal  or 
external  view  may  first  be  considered : 

The  Church  is  contemplated,  according  to  this  view,  as  a  visible  so- 
ciety simply,  having  a  prescribed  system  of  administration  and  ordi- 
nances, and  an  ecclesiastical  right  of  discipline, — existing  in  virtue  of  a 
formal  covenant,  and  capable  as  an  organization  of  conferring  certain 
external  privileges,  apart  Avholly  from  the  spiritual  state  or  desert  of 
the  recipient.  This  visible  society  sustains  only  an  external  relation- 
ship to  Christ,  and  is  made  up  merely  of  professing  adherents,  and 
held  together  simply  by  the  possession  of  these  outward  rights  and  pre- 
rogatives. Into  this  visible  society  any  one  may  be  introduced  who 
submits  to  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  and  who  avows  his  general  faith 
in  Christianity.  Of  its  external  privileges,  such  as  participation  in  the 
Supper,  he  may  by  such  formal  connection  become  partaker,  though 
he  be  conscious  of  no  real  union  of  soul  with  Christ  as  his  personal  Re- 
deemer. From  the  visible  fellowship  thus  established,  nothing  but  an 
authoritative  separation,  through  excommunication  on  account  of  de- 
monstrated sin,  can  expel  him.  The  entire  connection  is  an  outward  and 
formal  one ;  the  possession  of  grace  in  the  heart  is  not  presupposed  or 
implied  in  it.  The  conditions  are,  the  declaration  of  what  may  be 
termed  historical  or  intellectual  belief  in  Christianity  as  a  religion,  and 
an  outward  conformity  with  the  prescribed  rules  of  the  visible  body. 
The  adherent  professes  to  be,  not  an  infidel  or  scoffer,  but  in  an  exter- 
nal sense  a  believer  ;  and  as  such  seeks  for  himself  and  his  children  the 
outward  advantages,  which  connection  with  such  an  organization  con- 
fers. 1 

This  wholly  formal  conception  of  membership  is  based  on  a  very 
broad,  and  indeed  unwarrantable  distinction  between  the  Church  vis- 
ible and  the  Church  invisible.  It  is  supposed  to  be  justified  by  what 
our  Lord  teaches,  in  several  parables  and  elsewhere,  respecting  His 
Church  on  earth  as  a  mixed  society,  containing  good  fish  and  bad,  tares 
and  wheat,  within  the  one  visible  organization.     It  assumes  the  ex- 

'Banneeman,  D.  D.,  Presbyt.  Alliance  Proceedings;  1880,  p.  525. 


90  THE   PERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF  TUE  CIIURCH. 

istence  of  a  certain  outward  covenant,  and  of  a  series  of  merely  ex- 
ternal privileges,  of  which  those  who  are  not  true  believers  may  pro])- 
crly  avail  themselves.  It  sets  forth  the  sacraments,  not  as  the  signs 
and  seals  of  regenerative  grace  enjoyed,  but  rather  as  the  appointed 
marks  of  an  external  union,  and  consequently  as  advantages  or  bene- 
fits which  those  who  are  not  Christians  may  share.  It  reduces  the 
standard  of  admission  to  a  simple  application,  and  makes  membership 
a  mere  form ;  surrendering  the  question  of  qualification  Avholly  to  the 
applicant,  unless  he  be  a  notoriously  profligate  person.  And  wherever 
the  connection  between  Church  aud  State  exists,  this  union  is  consti- 
tuted even  without  formal  action  by  eitlier  party — the  inhabitant  <jf  a 
given  territory  becoming,  de  facto,  a  member  of  the  legal  Church.  So, 
wherever  baptism  is  regarded  as  conferring  not  a  constructive,  but  an 
actual  aud  complete  membership,  the  baptized  child,  submitting  at  a 
given  age  to  the  ceremony  of  confirmation,  becomes,  or  is,  without 
further  inquiry,  an  authorized  member  in  the  visible  society  that  baj)- 
tized  it.  Thus  Blunt,  ^  representing  the  high  Anglican  view,  defines 
the  visible  Church  as  the  whole  body  of  those  who  have  been  baptized, 
and  who  have  not  been  authoritatively  separated  from  the  Church  by 
excommunication.  That  this  is  a  departure  from  the  doctrine  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  is  obvious,  but  it  is  a  departure  to  Avhich  the 
theoiy  of  one  comprehensive  state  church,  and  the  theory  of  baptismal 
regeneration,  inevitably  compel  their  advocates.  The  state  churches 
of  Northern  Europe,  and  extensive  sections  of  European  Lutheranism, 
are  based  on  substantially  the  same  misconception. 

A  modified  or  intermediate  theory,  retaining  many  of  the  character- 
istics of  the  preceding,  appears  in  the  view  held  in  certain  sections  of 
British  Presbyterianism.  This  opinion  recognizes  on  the  one  side  the 
insuflaciency  of  the  Romish  test,  and  demands  something  more  than  a 
surrender  of  the  understanding  to  the  dictates  of  the  Church  in 
matters  of  faith,  and  a  formal  submission  to  its  ordinances.  But  on 
the  other  side,  it  maintains  that  an  intelligent  j^rofession  of  belief  in 
the  Gospel,  coupled  with  conduct  and  life  in  harmony  Avith  such  pro- 
fession, is  all  that  the  Church  may  properly  requii'c.  It  denies  that 
a  saving  belief  in  Christ  is  the  only  title  of  admission  to  the  Christian 
society,  and  questions  the  right  of  that  society  to  require  from  the 
applicant  credible  proof  that  he  has  any  such  title.  In  the  language 
of  one  of  its  advocates,  this  theory  holds  that  the  Church  stands 
revealed  before  the  eyes  of  men,  embodied  as  an  outward  system  of 
administration  and  ordinances  and  discipine  :  and  that  men  are  called 
upon  to  enter  within  this  Church,  and  are  promised  that,  if  they  do 
so,  they  shall  enjoy  certain  advantages  even  outwardly,  and  distinct 

^  Dictionary  of  Doct.  and  Hist.  Theolofjy :  Art.  Church. 


MEMBERSHIP;    SPIRITUAL   VIEW.  91 

from  any  saving  benefits  in  this  clinrch  state.  This  position  is  justified 
on  the  ground  that  the  biblical  conception  of  the  Church  as  visible 
demands  it,  and  on  the  further  ground  that  any  closer  test  than  this 
cannot  be  applied  without  assuming  for  the  Church  an  unwarrantable 
degree  both  of  authority  and  of  spiritual  insight.^ 

The  serious  error  in  all  such  teachings  lies  primarily  in  the  ignor- 
ing of  the  cardinal  principle,  that  the  only  legitimate  membership 
possible  is  that  which  rests  upon  repentance  and  faith  and  a  holy  life ; 
and  secondarily,  in  the  assumption  that  the  visible  church  is  something 
other,  more  external  and  formal,  and  altogether  less  comprehensive 
and  spiritual  in  its  demands,  than  the  true  Church  of  Christ  on  earth. 
The  distinction  between  the  visible  and  the  invisible  household  of 
faith  is  indeed  justifiable,  and  is  in  certain  directions  important.  But 
clearly  no  warrant  exists  in  Scripture,  or  in  the  perceived  nature  of 
Christianity,  for  such  an  application  of  that  distinction ;  and  the  con- 
sequences following  such  application  are  themselves  abundant  proof  of 
its  unlawfulness.  To  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  history  of  the 
conflict  in  New  England  during  the  last  century  over  the  Half-Way 
Covenant,  as  it  was  termed,  no  further  evidence  of  such  unlawfulness 
is  needful.  The  practical  result  everywhere,  as  in  that  historic  illus- 
tration, can  only  be  to  fill  the  Church  with  an  unregenerate  member- 
ship, to  the  irreparable  injury  alike  of  its  true  spiritual  quality,  of  its 
standing  before  the  world,  and  of  its  power  to  discharge  adequately 
its  great  commission  to  disciple  the  nations. 

Vn.  Current  Opinion  among  Protestants  :  The  Spiritual 
View. — This  view  may  be  defined  in  general  as  a  closer  return  to  the 
doctrine  and  usages  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  It  may  be  well  described 
by  a  brief  reference  to  the  historic  illustration  just  named.  Prior  to 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  churches  of  New  England, 
in  their  attempt  to  establish  a  theocracy  both  ecclesiastical  and  civil, 
had  received  multitudes  of  j)ersons  who  indeed  accepted  Christianity  as 
a  system,  and  believed  in  such  sound  standards  of  doctrine  as  the 
Westminster  Confession,  and  who  were  also  for  the  most  part  moral 
in  life,  and  practically  beyond  the  I'each  of  church  discipline,  but  who 
still  Avere  not  Christians  at  heart,  and  therefore  were  only  an  enfeebling 
and  demoralizing  element  within  the  church.  That  such  a  condition 
of  things  could  not  exist  permanently^  is  apparent  from  the  nature  of 
the  case  :  an  element  like  this  must  either  be  excluded  from  the  spiritual 
body,  or  press  that  body  down  to  its  own  unsgiritual  level.  With  the 
purifying  process  that  finally  wrought  out  that  exclusion,  the  name 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  is  indissolubly  associated.  His  earnest  and 
powerful  presentation  of  the  proper  qualifications  for  church  fellow- 

*  Banneeman,  James.  Church  of  Christ :  Vol.  I,  p.  75,  seq. 


92  THE  rcnsoNAL  constituents  of  the  ciiuRai. 

ship  and  communion,  based  as  it  was  on  his  high  and  strong  scheme 
of  Christian  doctrine,  prepared  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  better, 
more  evangelical  tests  of  n.cnibershij).  In  his  memorable  treatise, 
Edwards  shows  with  convincing  power  what  saving  faith  truly  is  as  a 
profound,  vital,  regenerating  experience, — what  it  really  is  to  receive 
Christ  in  His  jierson  and  His  offices  as  a  personal  Redeemer,  and  to 
attain  and  possess  the  sjjiritual  life,  of  which  such  a  reception  of  Christ 
is  both  the  beginning  and  the  permanent  source.  He  also  examines  the 
profession  of  such  faith  ;  showing  what  it  involves  as  a  personal  cove- 
nant with  the  tSavior,  and  to  what  vast  changes  of  thought,  feeling, 
conduct,  it  commits  the  soul  that  intelligently  makes  it.  He  empha- 
sizes also  the  public  and  visible  element  in  such  profession,  as  some- 
thing done  before  the  Church,  and  before  the  world, — the  organized 
church  being  not  merely  a  witness,  like  the  world,  but  also  a  party  to 
the  compact  thus  made  by  the  professing  disciple  })rimarily  with  Christ 
Himself.  Against  all  connection  with  the  Church  through  baptism, 
or  by  virtue  of  civil  position,  or  any  similar  external  process — against 
all  mere  profession  of  adherence  to  Christianity  as  a  system,  or  mere 
submission  to  sacramental  grace,  or  mere  pledges  of  external  morality, 
he  enters  strong,  effectual  protest.  In  a  word,  he  brings  out  afresh, 
with  great  vividness,  the  simple  and  searching  tests  applied  by  the 
apostles,  and  demands  for  these  full  recognition,  cordial  acquiescence.  ^ 

The  views  of  Edwards,  made  conspicuous  as  they  Avere  by  the  sad 
conflict  through  which  he  was  compelled  to  pass  in  maintaining  them, 
and  made  still  more  conspicuous  by  the  revivals  that  were  showered 
upon  New  England  largely  in  consequence  of  their  promulgation,  have 
been  extensively  accepted  in  America,  and  within  evangelical  circles 
in  Protestant  Europe,  as  expressing  the  substantial  doctrine  of  Scrip- 
ture on  this  vital  subject.  Postponing  here  the  subsidiary  question  as 
to  the  relative  responsibility  of  the  individual  making  a  visible  pro- 
fession, and  of  the  Church  that  receives  him  to  membership  on  that 
profession,  we  may  safely  hold  with  Edwards  that  nothing  less  than 
such  a  spiritual  state  as  has  been  described,  can  constitute  any  person 
a  worthy  candidate  for  admission  to  the  organized  household  of  faith. 
It  is  true  that  the  visible  Church  is  set  forth  in  the  Bible  as  a  net  en- 
closing good  fish  and  bad,  as  a  field  containing  wheat  and  tares  grow- 
ing together  unto  the  harvest,  as  a  companionship  in  which  men  like 
Ananias,  and  Simon  the  sorcerer  of  Samaria,  are  found.  It  is  true 
that  even  in  the  apostolic  circle  Judas  had  a  place;  and  that  no  insight 
of  man  is  able  always  to  detect  hypocrisy,  and  no  power  vested  in  the 

•Edwards,  Qualifications  for  Full  Communion.  Also,  Thoughts  on  the  Revival  of 
Religion  in  New  England.  Consult  also  his  treatise  on  the  Religious  Affections: 
and  Bellamy,  Tnie  Religion  Delineated. 


MEMBERSHIP   IN   THE   PARTICULAR   CHURCH.  93 

Church  is  adequate  to  the  task  of  its  own  entire  purification.  There 
is  some  force  also  in  the  conception  of  the  visible  Church  as  an  exter- 
nal society,  having  certain  rights  and  prerogatives  vested  in  it,  while 
in  that  position.  But  all  this  furnishes  no  justification  for  the  inference, 
that  the  Church  as  visible  is  to  lower  its  standard  from  a  saving  belief 
in  Christ  credibly  evidenced  to  the  body,  to  a  general  declaration  of 
adherence  to  Christianity,  and  an  outward  submission  to  the  sacra- 
ments, even  though  these  be  accompanied  by  a  commendable  morality 
in  the  person  seeking  admission.  At  this  point  the  modified  view  ad- 
vocated by  Bannerman  is  hardly  less  defective  theoretically,  while  in 
practice  it  is  far  more  dangerous,  than  the  purely  formal  theory  allowed 
largely  in  the  Anglican,  and  practically  followed  in  many  of  the  Con- 
tinental communions.  A  glance  at  the  New  Test,  teaching  will  con- 
vince any  one  that  the  apostolic  Church  never  admitted  any  one  to  its 
fellowship  in  order  that  he  might  enjoy  certain  outward  advantages 
wholly  apart  from  his  spiritual  estate — without  any  preestablished  re- 
lation to  Christ  within  the  Church  invisible.  Its  invariable  requisite 
was  nothing  less  than  a  saving  belief  in  the  Savior  Himself,  consciously 
possessed  and  duly  authenticated,  not  by  a  moral,  but  by  a  distinct- 
ively holy  life. 

VIII.  Membership  in  the  Particular  Church. — Reducing  this 
conception  of  saving  belief  to  its  several  elements,  we  discover  four 
definite  qualifications  for  church  membership — each  and  all  of  which 
are  indispensable.  These  qualifications  are,  first,  a  spiritual  know- 
ledge of  God,  especially  as  revealed  in  the  Gospel,  as  Father  and  Son 
and  Holy  Ghost :  second,  repentance  for  sin  as  committed  against  God, 
and  trust  in  the  divine  mercy,  especially  as  that  mercy  is  manifested 
in  and  through  Christ  as  a  Redeemer:  third,  obedience  to  God,  and 
cordial  devotion  to  His  interests  and  kingdom,  culminating  under  the 
Christian  dispensation  in  personal  conformity  with  Christ,  and  loyal 
consecration  to  His  service:  fourth,  a  public  declaration  of  such  faith 
and  devotion,  and  a  holy  covenant  with  God  to  be  His  servant,  followed 
and  confirmed  by  voluntary  union  and  communion  with  His  people, 
and,  under  the  Gospel,  with  some  branch  of  the  Christian  Church.  It 
will  be  obvious  that  these  four  elements  are  essential  expressions  of  true 
piety  under  all  dispensations,  and  that  they  consequently  have  always 
been,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  the  indispensable  prerequisites  to  true 
church  membership,  even  in  the  Hebraic  or  the  Patriarchal  era.  It 
will  also  be  obvious  that,  while  all  are  essential  to  membership  in  the 
Church  invisible,  they  are  all,  and  especially  the  last,  essential  to  a 
just  connection  with  any  visible  household  of  faith.  From  the  nature 
of  the  case  the  latter  connection  must  presuppose  their  existence,  and 
assume  it  throughout,  or  the  connection  established  must  be  throughout 


94  TlIE   PERSONAX,  CONSTITUENTS  OF  THE   CIIUIICII. 

formal,  meaningless,  dangerous  to  all  spiritual  interests,  whether  of  the 
Church  or  of  the  individual  soul. 

Hence,  in  the  particular  church,  it  is  indispensable  that  great  care 
, should  be  taken  at  this  most  vital  point.  The  following  conditions  are 
'requisite  here.  First:  there  must  be  an  open  profession  or  confession, 
not  merely  of  general  adherence  to  Christianity  or  general  belief  in 
the  Gospel,  but  of  personal  piety, — individual  faith  and  trust  in  Christ 
Himself  for  salvation.  Secondly:  this  profession  or  confession  must 
be  credibly  evidenced,  not  merely  by  a  moral  life,  but  by  the  possession 
and  manifestation  of  those  spiritual  experiences  and  graces,  which  are 
the  direct  outgrowth  of  a  living  piety  within  the  breast.  Thirdly : 
this  evidence  must  be  I'eceived  and  considered  by  the  particular  church, 
through  some  suitable  and  appointed  method — the  profession  must  be 
believed  by  that  church  to  be  genuine,  and  to  represent  a  regenerate 
state  in  the  applicant.  As  the  household  of  faith  must  share  Avith  him 
in  the  issue  of  his  act,  so  it  is  bound  to  form  some  just  estimate  of  the 
spiritual  condition  which  the  act  symbolizes.  Fourthly :  there  must 
also  be  in  every  such  case  a  voluntary  acceptance  of  the  covenant  and 
creed  of  the  organization,  and  a  cordial  submission  to  its  legitimate 
regulations  and  authority.  Loyalty  not  merely  to  the  Church  at  large, 
but  to  the  particular  body,  is  of  necessity  implied  in  such  a  step ; 
otherwise,  the  connection  becomes  little  more  than  an  abstract  declara- 
tion, having  but  slight  influence  on  any  of  the  parties,  and  of  small 
value  as  a  contribution  to  the  general  cause  of  Christ. 

Some  who  admit  the  need  of  the  first  and  second  of  these  specific 
qualifications,  question  the  propriety  of  requiring  the  third,  on  the 
ground  that  the  particular  church  is  in  fact  incapable  of  forming  an 
accurate  judgment  respecting  the  spiritual  state  of  any  applicant,  and 
that  the  assumption  of  the  right,  or  the  acknowledgment  of  the  ob- 
ligation to  do  this,  is  consequently  improjDer  and  mischievous.  It  is 
said  that  the  visible  Church  is  and  must  always  be  a  mixed  society; 
that  the  effort  to  expel  all  unworthy  members,  or  to  keep  the  Church 
absolutely  pure,  has  always  been  a  failure ;  that  Christ  intended  that 
His  Church  should,  even  until  the  day  of  harvest  contain  tares,  as 
well  as  wheat  ready  for  His  garner;  and  that  the  responsibility  for 
connection  with  the  Church  must  not  be  assumed  by  the  body,  but 
'  must  be  thrown  entirely  upon  the  person  applying  for  admission.  It 
is  broadly  affirmed  that  this  responsibility  can  not  i:)roperly  be  in  any 
degree  shared  by  the  chui'ch  or  its  appointed  officers,  and  that  they 
ought  never  to  be  understood  as  passing  judgment  upon,  or  as  endorsing 
the  validity  of  the  evidences  of  a  gracious  state,  furnished  by  the  ap- 
plicant. No  such  judgment,  it  is  said,  is  expressed  or  implied  in 
.  receiving  any  one  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church :  all  that  is  requi- 


PIETY   THE   REQUISITE   CONDITION.  95 

site  is,   that  there  be  no  positive  grounds   for  pronouncing  him  not 
to  be  a  Christian.  1 

The  answer  of  Edwards  to  this  intermediate  jiosition  is  the  just  and 
conclusive  answer.  He  maintains  that  the  particular  church  must 
share  Avith  the  professing  disciple  in  the  solemn  act  in  which  he  is  en- 
gaging ;  and  that  it  is  sacredly  bound  to  settle  for  itself,  no  less  than 
for  him,  the  question  whether  his  profession  is  credible, — may  be  ac- 
cepted as  the  outward  evidence  of  a  truly  regenerate  nature.  He 
holds  that  while  there  is  always  some  liability  to  error  in  such  judg- 
ment, yet  the  church  should  reduce  such  liability  to  the  lowest  possible 
degree,  and  should  be  satisfied  Avith  nothing  less  than  substantial  assur- 
ance as  to  the  spiritual  state  of  the  aj^plicant.  He  defines  the  element 
of  credibility  in  the  case,  not  simply  as  what  may  in  a  negative  way 
be  believed,  but  rather  as  a  positive  judgment  founded  on  outward 
manifestations  that  ordinarily  render  the  judgment  probable.  Can 
there  be  any  doubt  that  this  is  the  wise  and  scriptural  position?  How 
can  any  church  refuse  to  step  in  with  its  counsel  and  oversight,  at  such 
a  juncture  in  the  spiritual  experience  of  those  who  seek  its  fellowship? 
When  Avc  bear  in  mind  how  many  such  persons  are  young  or  ignorant, 
or  are  in  a  variety  of  ways  exposed  to  serious  delusions  respecting  their 
religious  purposes  and  estate,  how  can  we  justify  a  church  in  simply 
opening  its  doors,  and  allowing  them  to  enter  in,  upon  their  own  unchal- 
lenged declaration,  provided  they  are  not  openly  unworthy  ?  The 
credible  evidence  in  such  cases  must  be,  not  negatively  that  which  may 
be  believed,  but  positively  that  which  convinces.  Those  who  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  church  as  judges,  must  inquire  respecting  piety  as  well 
as  knowledge  {Pres.  Directory:  Ch.  ix:  3-4),  and  the  duty  of  inquiry 
clearly  carries  Avith  it  the  duty  of  guidance  and  of  judgment.  They 
must  be  convinced,  as  far  as  ascertainable  indications  go,  that  the  ap- 
plicant is  indeed,  as  he  professes  to  be,  already  a  child  of  God.  This 
is  a  reponsibility  Avhich  no  particular  church  can  evade  or  transfer:  it 
belongs  essentially  to   every  organized  household  of  faith.     As   the 

'  Mason,  John  M.,  CIntrch  of  God,  p.  52-58,  seq ;  Hodge,  Charles,  ThcoL,  Vol. 
hi:  544-G:  5G9-78 :  Hodge,  A.  A.,  Ontlnies  of  Tlicol,  C4G.  Tlic  first  author  goes 
on  to  argue  that  there  are  positive  advantages  to  be  gained  bj'  the  Cliurch  through 
the  admission  of  unregenerate  persons,  and  tlirough  the  mixed  condition  of 
things  resulting.  And  the  second,  in  arguing  for  the  admission  of  baptized  persons 
to  the  communion  and  to  church  fellowship,  adds  the  remark  that  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  many  such  have  come  short  of  eternal  life  who,  had  they  been  received  into 
the  bosom  of  the  Church,  and  enjoyed  its  guardian  and  fostering  care,  might 
have  been  saved:  iir,  57G.  For  another  statement,  see  Dorner,  Christ.  Thcol.  iv  : 
3.37-9.  While  he  holds  that  the  Church  must  not  identify  its  judgment  with 
the  judgment  of  Christ  as  absolute  and  final,  he  maintains  that  the  Church  can 
not  gram  admission  where  impenitence  is  seen  to  exist, — the  Church  judging 
the  applicant  thus  far. 


96        THE  PERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

grounds  of  exclusion  from  the  Church  must  be  the  same  as  the  grounds 
of  exclusion  from  heaven,  so  the  terms  of  admission  must  be  the  same 
essentially  as  those  of  admission  to  heaven :  and  for  the  requiring  of 
these  terms,  and  the  decision  respecting  their  existence,  every  such 
church  must  be  directly  accountable  to  Christ. 

IX.  Membership  of  Children  of  Believers. — One  further  ques- 
tion remains, — the  question  respecting  the  relation  to  the  Christian 
Church  of  the  children  of  believing  parents,  and  especially  of  those 
who  through  the  sacrament  of  baptism  have  been  visibly  associated  in 
covenant  with  the  particular  church.  It  has  already  been  shown  that, 
in  the  economy  of  grace,  the  pious  household,  as  well  as  the  individ- 
ual believer,  has  a  legitimate  j^lace  and  claim,  and  that  the  believing 
family^may  properly  be  contemplated  as,  in  some  important  senses,  a 
unit  within  the  Church.  It  has  been  shown  that  in  the  Christian  as  in 
the  two  antecedent  periods  in  the  history  of  that  Church,  the  Abra- 
hamic  covenant  stands  as  a  great  fact  in  the  scheme  of  grace,  full  of 
promise  and  of  blessing.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  baptism  of  the 
children  of  pious  parents,  as  a  sign  of  this  covenant  relation,  is  war- 
ranted by  Scripture,  and  is  justified  in  the  experience  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  It  follows  from  these  propositions  that  such  children  are  in 
a  true  sense,  born  within  the  pale  of  the  visible  Church,  may  properly 
be  baptized,  are  entitled  to  its  continuous  nurture  and  care,  and  do 
even  inherit  a  certain  species  and  measure  of  membership  within  its 
sacred  inclosure.  To  this  general  view  even  those  who  regard  infant 
baptism  as  an  unauthorized  mode  of  expressing  this  covenant  relation, 
might  easily  give  assent. 

At  this  point  we  come  upon  a  wide  variety  of  opinion  and  usage. 
The  Papal  Church  at  one  extreme  regards  this  membership  as  conferred 
in  and  through  such  baptism,  and  therefore  claims  as  its  lambs  all  bap- 
tized children,  whatever  may  have  been  the  spiritual  state  of  the 
parents.  At  the  other  extreme,  we  find  persons  who  hold  that  church 
membership  can  exist  only  in  and  through  personal  faith,  and  who 
therefore  regard  the  children  of  believers  as  standing,  prior  to  conver- 
sion, in  the  same  place  essentially  with  the  children  of  unbelievers, — 
wholly  outside  of  the  visible  Church.  The  rite  of  confirmation,  accord- 
ing to  the  papal  view,  does  not  establish,  but  simply  confirms  or  rati- 
fies an  antecedent  membership.  Hence  the  Romish  communion  can 
set  up  no  spiritual  standard  of  admission,  and  is  consequently  con- 
strained to  suffer  the  disastrous  issues  of  its  error  in  the  strange  mixture 
of  good  and  bad,  wheat  and  tares,  in  its  multitudinous  membership. 
Of  the  antithetic  error  of  denying  to  such  children  any  covenanted 
relation  to  the  visible  Church,  nothing  further  need  be  said ;  it  is  suf- 
ficient to  note  its  disastrous  influence  in  many  ways  on  church  life  and 


MEMBERSHIP   OF   CHILDREN   OP   BELIEVERS.  97 

growth.  The  general  Protestant  position  lies  between  these  two  ex- 
tremes ;  yet  neither  the  doctrine  nor  the  practice  of  Protestant  bodies 
can  be  said  to  be  in  any  sense  uniform.  As  in  respect  to  the  mem- 
bership of  adults,  so  here  the  formal  and  the  spiritual  theorieo  stand 
in  wide  contrast. 

The  formal  theory  exalts  the  merely  external  relation,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  spiritual  experience  and  life  which  that  relation  at  least 
anticipates.  Tt  tends  decidedly,  as  in  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation, 
and  as  in  current  Prelatism  and  Lutheranism  in  Europe,  toward  the 
Papal  view ;  contemplating  the  connection  as  substantially  one  of  form 
and  of  outward  privilege.  Accordingly,  access  to  the  tabic  of  the 
Lord  is  made  to  turn  chiefly  on  the  capacity  to  recite  the  Command- 
ments and  the  Apostolic  Creed ;  fellowship  in  the  Church  is  assumed 
as  a  species  of  natural  right,  under  these  external  conditions ;  and  the 
membership  thus  gained  stands  rather  as  a  social  mark,  than  as  the 
sign  of  a  gracious  state.  The  Westminster  Symbols  expressing  the 
general  doctrine  of  the  seventeenth  century,  emj^hasize  strongly  this 
external  aspect  of  the  connection,  while  they  also  bring  out  more  dis- 
tinctly than  any  antecedent  Confession,  the  more  spiritual  view  implied 
in  their  emphatic  phrase,  knowledge  and  piety.  On  the  one  side  they 
introduce,  or  at  least  give  currency  to,  the  doubtful  distinction  between 
member  and  communicant,  and  thus  furnish  foundation  for  such  de- 
fective conceptions  of  adult  membership  as  were  expressed  in  the 
Half-way  Covenant  of  New  England.  On  the  other  they  directly  im- 
pose upon  the  Church  not  merely  the  obligation  to  care  for  such  infant 
members  spiritually,  but  also  the  further  duty  to  discipline  them  when 
they  become  adults,  for  their  failure  to  come  to  the  table  of  Christ,  or 
to  lead  a  truly  Christian  life. 

The  spiritual  theory  affirms  the  fact  of  a  real  connection  established 
at  birth  and  ratified  in  baptism,  and  accepts  in  full  the  obligation  of  the 
Church  to  train  up  in  knowledge  and  piety  those  who  througli  parental 
faith  stand  in  that  connection.  It  regards  this  as  an  anticipatory  or 
constructive  species  of  membership;  it  views  the  connection  as. pro- 
spective and  prophetic.  It  maintains  also  the  obligation  of  parents  to 
bring  up  such  children  as  within  the  Church  rather  than  without; — to 
educate  them  directly  and  zealously,  with  reference  to  their  assumption 
in  due  season  of  such  duties  as  devolve  upon  converted  adults  within 
the  household  of  faith.  It  asserts  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  contem- 
plate such  pious  offspring  as  its  own, — to  make  ample  provision  for 
their  training  in  divine  things,  to  instruct  them  in  all  Christian  duty, 
and  to  guide  their  young  feet  into  the  way  of  peace.  But  on  the  other 
hand  it  regards  full  membership  as  involving  something  more  than 
this ;   it  demands  a  higher  qualification  than  the  mere  rite  of  confirm- 


98  Tin:  personal  constituents  of  the  cnuRCn. 

ation,  or  any  general  profession  of  adherence  to  Christianity,  or  even 
blaraelessness  in  life ;  it  calls  for  a  true  change  of  heart  in  the  baptized 
child,  no  less  than  in  tlie  unbaptized  adult  who  has  lived  long  in  sin, 
wholly  without  the  fold  of  grace.  In  a  word,  it  holds  to  the  existence 
of  J^  genuine  and  most  blessed  relation,  which  has  in  it  large  spiritual 
possibilities,  and  which  may  be  expected  to  issue,  if  all  parties  are 
faithful  to  their  covenant,  in  a  complete  and  perfect  union  at  once  with 
the  visible  Church,  and  with  the  Church  invisible.  This  relation  is  the 
historic  antecedent  to  full  membership;  it  is  merabershiji  in  the  germ, 
and  might  therefore  be  called  by  that  name.  But  it  is  not  a  connec- 
tion which  properly  brings  the  child  under  the  executive  government 
of  the  Church,  or  which  exposes  it  to  ecclesiastical  discipline  for  its 
failure  to  discharge  religious  duties.  The  assumption  by  the  Church 
of  a  derived  right,  for  example,  to  excommunicate  such  a  baptized 
child,  on  its  coming  to  mature  years,  for  the  neglect  of  religion,  or  even 
for  immorality,  is  unwarranted  by  the  nature  of  the  relation,  as  thus 
described.  ^ 

X.  The  Church  an  Organization:  Offices  and  Officers  Re- 
quisite.— Besides  the  membershiji  who  constitute  its  personal  material, 
the  Church,  in  order  to  the  proper  execution  of  its  functions,  requires — 
as  we  have  already  noted — an  organization  of  this  material  into  unity 
under  some  definite  form  of  constitution.  Without  such  orgiinization 
the  life  of  the  body  can  not  be  adequately  sustained,  nor  can  the  ends 
contemplated  in  its  existence  be  effectively  secured.  The  Bible  there- 
fore not  only  sets  forth  the  qualifications  requisite  in  the  members  of 
this  divine  body,  but  describes  that  body  as  a  living  organism ,  in  which 
each  member  has  an  appointed  place,  and  in  which  all  the  members 
are  fitly  joined  and  compacted  together  by  that  Avliich  every  joint  sup- 
plieth,  Eph.  4:  16.  The  two  metaphors  by  which  the  Church  is  habit- 
ually described  in  the  New  Testament,  will  sufficiently  illustrate  this 
statement.  Viewed  on  one  hand  as  a  family  or  household  of  faith, 
every  particular  church  is  a  unit,  animated  by  Avhat  may  be  termed  a 
common  life,  and  regulated  by  distinctive  principles  which  are  higher 
than  individual  impulse  or  aim.  Viewed  on  the  other  as  a  state  or 
kingdom,  the  particular  church  still  more  obviously  requires  organiza- 
tion, a  constitution  and  laws,  a  real  and  effective  government.  All 
that  is  requisite  to  the  full  equipment  of  the  two  inferior  institutions, 
the  family  and  the  state,  for  the  full  performance  of  their  respective 
functions  in  human  life,  must  be  in  like  manner  requisite  to  the  exist- 

'Masox,  J.  M.,  Church  of  God,  pp.  106-173.  The  author  affirms  the  right  of 
the  particular  Church  to  inspect  conduct,  and  to  exercise  authority,  but  does  not 
claim  the  right  to  administer  discipline.  See  on  this  point,  Preshyt.  Digest, 
pp.  671-2.     HoDfiE,  Church  Polity,  p.  21.3. 


OFFICES   AND   OFFICERS   ESSENTIAL.  99 

ence  and  efficiency  of  the  Church.  It  is  especially  obvious  that  such 
organization  is  an  essential  element  under  the  latter  conception  ; — if  the 
Church  is  to  be  in  any  sense  a  kingdom,  it  must  have  organization, 
laws,  offices  and  officers,  such  as  its  nature  and  its  aims  demand. 

Without  anticipating  the  full  consideration  of  the  nature  of  church 
government,  we  may  note  here  the  necessity  for  officers — representa- 
tives of  such  government— as  well  as  members  to  be  governed,  within 
the  organized  family  and  kingdom  of  grace.  Various  illustrations  of 
this  necessity  might  be  derived  from  the  constitution  of  the  Hebraic, 
and  even  of  the  Patriarchal  Church.  Under  the  (xospel  the  evidence 
is  still  more  distinct  and  conclusive.  The  Messiah  in  constituting  His 
Church,  clearly  made  provision  for  the  official  investiture  and  the  ad- 
ministrative functions,  first  of  the  apostles,  and  then  of  those  who  should 
succeed  them  in  the  discharge  of  this  spiritual  trust.  The  perfecting 
of  the  saints  individually,  and  the  perfecting  of  the  organized  body  for 
its  great  mission,  required  that  long  before  His  ascension  He  should  be 
training  special  men  for  such  administration,  and  then  that  at  the  as- 
cension He  should  give  to  His  Church  apostles  and  prophets,  evangelists 
and  pastors  and  teacliers,  by  whom  the  composite  organization  should 
be  guided,  edified  and  governed;  Eph.  4  :  11-13.  These  official  per- 
sons were  not  to  be  a  class  separate  from  the  Church,  and  vested  with 
an  inherent  right  to  control  it,  and  with  authority  to  transmit  that  right 
to  others,  independently  of  the  choice  of  the  body  to  be  governed. 
They  were  rather  members  of  the  Church,  divinely  chosen  and  set 
apart  from  their  brethren  for  this  service ;  and  were  to  act  under  full 
responsibility  to  the  Church  as  well  as  to  Christ  for  the  manner  in 
which  they  should  discharge  their  difficult  commission.  In  the  full 
sense,  no  company  of  believers  can  be  regarded  as  a  Church  which  is 
not  thus  organized  and  officered ;  even  where  this  is  denied  in  form,  it 
is  not  excluded  in  fact.  An  unorganized  body  of  disciples,  without  a 
constitution,  without  rules,  without  leaders,  may  enjoy  a  degree  of 
temporary  fellowship,  but  they  can  not  declare  themselves  a  church 
according  to  the  New  Testament  standard.  They  may  wear  the  name, 
but  certainly  they  can  attain  no  distinct  view  or  experience  of  the  di- 
vine reality. 

Contemplating  the  officers  of  the  Church  simply  as  among  its  per- 
sonal constituents,  antithetic  to  its  membership  as  already  considered, 
we  may  briefly  examine  the  names  and  functions,  the  position  and 
authority,  of  those  who  are  called  to  sustain  this  relation :— meanwhile 
postponing  the  broader  question  respecting  the  nature  of  the  govern- 
ment to  be  administered  through  such  official  instruments.  Distin- 
guishing for  the  moment  between  the  officer  and  the  office,  we  may 
observe  in  general  that  all  of  the  offices  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 


100  THE  PERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF   TIIE  CHURCH. 

meat   may  be  divided  into  two  classes,  the  temporary  and  the  per- 
manent. 

XL  Temporary  Church  Offices. — The  first  chnss  of  ofiices  to  be 
considered  in  this  connection  are  those  which  by  their  nature  were 
limited  to  particular  epochs  or  exigencies  in  the  history  of  Christianity, 
or  those  which  are  essential  occasionally,  but  not  permanently,  in  its 
progressive  career.  The  prophetical  and  apostolic  offices  belong  to  the 
first  division ;  the  office  of  the  evangelist  and  of  the  deaconess  to  the 
second : 

1.  The  prophetical  office  appeared  prominently  in  the  Christian 
Church  during  the  first  century,  as  it  had  existed  during  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  preceding  period.  Its  appearance  was  probably  included 
in  the  promise  in  Joel,  quoted  in  conjunction  with  the  mii-aculous 
events  of  the  Pentecost,  Acts  2  :  17.  The  warnings  of  our  Lord 
with  regard  to  false  prophets,  show  that  such  an  order  was  to  exist 
under  the  Gospel:  Matt.  7:  15,  Mark  13:  22.  Examples  of  true 
prophesying  may  be  found  in  Luke  1:  67,  Acts  11  :  27-8,  13:  1, 
21:  10-11:  various  references  to  the  prophetic  order  occur  in  the 
epistles,  as  1  Cor.  12:  28-9,  14:  1-3,  Eph.  4:  11.  Like  the  Jewish 
seers,  these  New  Test,  prophets  taught  as  well  as  foretold  future  events. 
Acts  15:  32,  1  Cor.  14:  29-32.  It  may  be  that  the  poAver  of  speak- 
ing in  unknown  tongues,  and  the  kindred  power  of  interpretation  and 
of  discerning  spirits,  dwelt  largely  in  them.  Obviously  their  pres- 
ence and  their  work  were  both  a  prominent  and  a  peculiar  feature 
in  the  life  of  the  primitive  Church. — Yet  their  mission  clearly  ended 
with  the  first  century.  The  claim  of  ability  to  foresee  the  future 
through  divine  aid  was  indeed  occasionally  made,  during  the  second 
and  third  centuries,  as  the  same  claim  has  been  made  in  modern  times. 
But  facts  have  never  verified  the  claim.  The  office  evidently  belonged, 
like  the  other  charisms,  to  that  particular  period  in  the  career  of  the 
Church,— it  was  supernatural  altogether,  and  as  such  was  just  then 
needed  as  a  confirmatory  witness  to  the  divinity  of  the  Gospel.  But 
the  necessity  for  it  ceased  Avhen  the  Church  had  once  obtained  an 
assured  position,  and  the  function  therefore  passed  away.  AVhile  we 
can  not  on  Scriptural  grounds  affirm,  that  no  exigency  will  ever  arise 
in  which  the  gift  of  prophecy  will  again  be  conferred,  before  the  final 
consummation,  we  are  Avarranted  in  affirming  that  no  such  endowment 
exists  now,  or  has  existed  at  any  period  since  the  decease  of  John,  the 
last  and  greatest  of  the  historic  prophets  :  Kev.  10:  11,  22:  6.^ 

2.  The  apostolic  office  also  ceased  Avith  the  death  of  John.  The 
peculiarity  of  this  office  clearly  lay  in  the  function  of  Avitnessing  to 

'  On  the  Prophetical  Office  and  Teaching,  see  Alexander,  on  Isaiah,  Introduc- 
tion.    Also  Stanley,  Hist,  of  the  Jewish  Church,  Lect.  xix  :  xx. 


THE    APOSTOLIC  OFFICE   TEMPORARY.  101 

the  person  and  mission  of  Christ, — a  function  wliich  from  the  nature 
of  the  case  could  liave  been  imparted  to  none  but  those  Avho  had  actu- 
ally seen  and  heard  Him,  and  which  in  fact  could  have  been  exercised 
by  none  even  among  such  competent  witnesses,  but  those  to  whom  a 
divine  commission  had  been  directly  given.  The  apostles,  in  other 
words,  were  a  body  of  men  selected  by  our  Lord  as  His  disciples  in  a 
special  sense,  to  accompany  Him  during  His  earthly  ministry,  in  order 
that  they  might  be  qualified,  as  only  such  a  body  could  be,  to  certify 
before  men  after  His  decease  to  what  they  had  personally  seen  and 
heard ;  Acts  1 :  2,  8,  1  John  1 :  1-3.  The  introductory  commission 
given  to  them  (Matt.  10:  2)«s8m),  and  the  full  commission  described 
in  Luke  24 :  4-4-48,  show  that,  while  they  were  to  become  also  bishops 
and  teachers  permanently  caring  for  the  Church  which  was  to  be  or- 
ganized by  their  eflTorts,  this  peculiar  and  inalienable  function  of  bearing 
personal  witness,  was  to  be  their  more  immediate  duty.  Their  own 
declarations  as  to  this  apostolic  function,  especially  in  connection  Avith 
the  election  of  Matthias  to  the  apostolate  (Acts  1 :  21-22),  are  de- 
cisive on  this  point:  Acts  3;  15,  5:  32,  10:  39-41,  13:  31,  and 
many  others.  If  it  be  maintained  on  what  seem  to  be  reasonable 
grounds  that  the  election  of  Matthias  was  divinely  directed,  and  that 
his  election  shows  that  the  function  of  witnessing  might  properly  be 
transmitted  beyond  the  original  circle  of  the  twelve,  it  should  also  be 
granted  that  the  description  of  the  qualifications  requisite  in  this 
instance,  shows  conclusively  that  such  transmission  could  have  been 
justified  only  so  far  as  these  untransmissible  qualifications  might  be 
found.  As  witnesses,  in  the  sense  here  described,  the  apostles  could 
have  had  no  successors,  at  least  beyond  the  small  circle  of  those  who, 
with  them,  had  companied  with  the  Lord  Jesus  all  the  time  that  He 
went  in  and  out  among  men,  in  His  mediatorial  mission.  No  command 
to  transmit  their  function  of  witnessing  beyond  this  limited  range  any- 
where appears;  no  aflfirmation  that  this  would  occur,  can  be  found  in 
the  New  Testament ;  by  the  natui'c  of  the  case  such  transmission  was 
impracticable. 

The  attempt  to  prove  that  the  apostolate,  in  this  sense  of  the 
terra,  Avas  in  fact  transmitted  not  only  to  Matthias  and  Paul,  but  also 
to  Barnabas,  Apollos  and  Epaphroditus,  and  was  thus  made  a  perma- 
nent office  within  the  Church,  rests  on  very  slender  foundations.  In 
the  case  of  Paul,  we  find  his  claim  to  the  apostolic  office  based  directly 
on  his  possession  of  supernatural  qualifications  kindred  to  those  pos- 
sessed by  the  original  group ;  he  had  personally  seen  the  Lord,  and  had 
been  miraculously  commisioned  to  testify  to  what  he  had  seen :  1  Cor.  15 : 
8-10,  Gal.  1:  12.  In  respect  to  the  others  named,  the  terra,  apostle, 
is  clearly  used  in  the  same  general  sense  in  which  we  find  it  applied, 


102  THE  PERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE  CIIi:RCH. 

probably,  by  Paul  to  Andronicus  and  Juuias  (Rom.  IG:  7),  and  el.se- 
where  to  other  persons  who  were  me.ssengers  or  helpers  of  the  chiirehes. 
The  rcferenee  in  Kev.  21 :  14,  to  the  twelve  apostles  of  the  Lamb^ — a 
reference  dating  nearly  two  generations  after  the  death  of  our  Lord — 
implies  that  the  original  number  had  never  been  exceeded.  The  allu- 
sions by  Paul  and  Johu  to  persons  whom  he  styled  false  apostles — who  say 
they  are  apostles  and  are  not,  are  also  suggestive  in  this  connection :  2 
Cor,  11;  13,  Rev.  2:  2.  That- the  real  apostles  filled  other  functions, 
and  sustained  wider  relations  to  these  churches,  is  obvious  from  the  case 
of  Paul  himself  who,  though  he  styled  himself  an  apostle,  1  Tim,  2 :  7, 
was  also  called  a  prophet.  Acts  13:  1,  a  bishop  or  elder,  Eph.  3:  7, 
8,  and  an  evangelist  or  teacher.  Acts  13; '2-4.  Naturally  the  apos- 
tolic group  continued  while  they  lived,  to  be  not  merely  witnesses  to 
the  great  facts  touching  the  Mcssiahship,  but  also  leaders  in  the 
entire  process  of  planting  and  edifying  the  Church,  wherever  it  was 
established.  This  general  office  of  leadership  and  ministration  was  of 
course  transmissible,  though  even  here  the  supernatural  charisms 
which  in  their  case  accompanied  the  office,  and  the  inspiration  wdiich 
sustained  and  aided  them  in  it,  could  not  be  conferred  by  them  on 
their  successors  in  this  task.  ^ 

3,  The  evangelistic  office  makes  its  appearance  rather  as  an  occa- 
sional form  of  ministration,  or  a  temporary  function,  than  as  a  per- 
manent equipment  of  the  early  Church,  It  finds  an  illustration  in  the 
mission  given  by  our  Lord  (Luke  10:  j'^'^^sivi)  to  the  seventy  who,  in 
addition  to  the  twelve,  were  to  go  forth  for  a  season  as  His  messengers 
to  the  lost  multitudes  of  Israel,  Apostles  and  others  seem  at  times 
to  have  assumed  such  a  special  service,  as  Philip  in  the  desert  toward 
Gaza,  Acts  8  :  26-40;  Peter  going  down  to  Ca^sarea,  Acts  10:  23-48: 
Paul  and  Barnabas  laboring  in  Cyprus  and  in  Western  Asia,  Acts  13 : 
2-14.  The  more  genei-al  biblical  references  (Eph  4:  11,  and  else- 
where) show  that  this  type  of  Christian  work  Avas  extensively  assumed 
under  some  sort  of  commission,  by  numbers  in  the  primitive  Church, 
and  was  continued  throughout  the  apostolic  century.  The  disciples 
who  went  forth  preaching  the  Word,  or  heralding  the  good  news  of  the 
Gospel,  even  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  were  filling  this  evan- 
gelistic office.  Like  John  the  Baptist,  they  were  forerunners  of  the 
more  permanent  work  of  organization  and  edifying  that  was  to  follow, 
under  the  blessing  of  the  Spirit,  wherever  they  successfully  proclaimed 

*  Neander,  Planting  and  Training,  etc.,  p.  150;  Mosheim,  i:  91:  Note:  "By  its 
very  idea  as  the  primitive,  authentic  body  of  witnesses  the  apostolate  is  unrepeat- 
able, because  it  rests  on  tlie  uniqueness  of  the  relation  of  the  first  generation  to 
Christ,  and  on  tlieir  immediate  selection  and  education  by  Christ."  Doenee, 
Christ.  Boot,  iv :  p.  334. 


OTHER   TEMPORARY    OFFICES.  103 

the  great  salvation.  We  find  their  successors  in  those  who  in  the  cen- 
turies following  bore  the  Gospel  to  the  farthest  East,  and  to  the  tribes 
of  northern  Egrope;  or  in  the  missionaries  of  modern  times,  as  they 
traverse  the  globe  on  the  same  errand  of  mercy  to  lost  humanity. 
Apparently,  they  were  never  intended  to  become  a  separate,  independ- 
ent class,  existing  within  the  organized  Church,  by  the  side  of  others 
who  sustain  the  ministerial  office,  and  assuming  to  themselves  some 
special  class  of  ministerial  functions.  The  application  of  the  title  to 
those  Avho  are  called  to  no  evangelistic  work  such  as  has  just  been 
sketched,  but  who  labor  occasionally  in  aid  of  Christian  pastors,  as  in 
seasons  of  revival,  is  one  Avhich  the  New  Testament  nowhere  suggests. 
4.  To  complete  this  review  of  church  offices  which  are  temporary  or 
occasional  rather  than  permanent,  a  glimpse  at  the  office  or  function 
of  the  deaconess  may  be  taken  here.  The  instance  of  Phoebe, 
deaconess  or  servant  of  the  Cenchrean  Church,  gracefully  alluded  to 
by  Paul  as  the  succorer  of  himself  and  of  many,  and  also  his  reference 
to  Mary,  and  to  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa,  at  Rome,  are  quoted  as  indi- 
cating the  existence  of  such  an  order  of  persons  in  other  households  of 
faith;  Rom.  16:  16,  12.  His  allusion  to  a  certain  class  of  godly 
women  (1  Tim.  5:  10),  and  to  the  wives  of  deacons  (1  Tim.  3:  11), 
and  a  like  allusion  in  Titus  2 :  3,  are  regarded  as  confirming  this  indi- 
cation. The  place  which  holy  Avomen  evidently  occupied  in  the  circle 
of  grace,  even  during  the  life-time  of  Christ  (Luke  8  :  2-3,  for  illus- 
tration), and  also  the  peculiar  type  of  social  life  Avhich  was  developed 
at  the  Pentecost,  and  in  which  women  shared  as  freely  as  men,  have 
seemed  still  further  to  confirm  the  belief  that  official  position  was  early 
conferred  on  woman  within  the  Church.  Such  a  step  would  certainly 
be  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  a  religion,  which  from  the  outset  aimed 
at  the  emancipation  and  exaltation  of  woman,  as  one  of  its  immediate 
results.  It  is  also  certain  that  the  office  of  deaconess,  with  the  special 
function  of  caring  for  the  sick  and  needy,  instructing  the  young, 
watching  over  certain  church  interests,  and  ministering  to  martyrs  and 
confessors  for  the  truth,  existed  early  in  both  tlie  Eastern  and  the 
Western  Church.  In  the  Apostolical  Constitutions,  a  form  for  the  ordi- 
nation of  women  to  this  service  was  explicitly  prescribed.  A  substitute 
for  such  a  class  of  church  servants  is  provided  in  the  Romish  commun- 
ion, and  in  some  sections  of  Protestantism,  through  the  appointment 
of  special  orders  of  nuns  and  sisterhoods,  devoted  through  life  to  the 
interests  of  religion.  Yet  the  office,  if  any  such  existed  at  the  be- 
ginning, must  have  been  but  occasional  and  partial ;  it  can  not  be  said 
to  have  held  its  place  broadly  in  the  conviction  and  favor  of  the 
Church.  In  some  communions  it  is  still  in  some  degree  and  form  re- 
tained.    The  current  tendency  in  the  most  spiritual  sections  of  Protest- 


104  Tin:   PERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   ClIUKCU. 

antism  to  supply  women  with  appropriate  spheres  and  opportunit'es 
for  useful  service  in  the  Church,  though  it  may  result  in  no  such  offi- 
cial investiture,  is  a  fact  in  which  all  true  friends  of  an  active,  fruitful 
Christianity  may  well  rejoice.  ^ 

XII.  Permanent  Church  Offices. — Contemplating  still  the  office 
rather  than  the  officer,  and  inquiring  simply  respecting  those  official 
functions  whose  existence  and  exercise  are  indispensable  to  the  proper 
organization  and  effi3Ctive  work  of  the  Church,  we  may  note  three 
distinct  spheres  of  such  activity  which  demand  careful  consideration. 

1.  The  office  of  instruction,  including  both  the  enlightening  and  edi- 
fying of  the  Church,  and  the  education  of  society  in  the  Christian 
faith,  stands  first  in  this  series.  That  such  a  function  is  essential  to 
the  healthful  development  of  organic  Christianity  is  obvious.  It  is 
just  at  this  point  that  we  discover  one  of  the  marked  contrasts  between 
Christianity  and  the  great  natural  faiths, — in  the  appeal  which  the 
former  constantly  makes,  not  to  superstition  or  to  the  esthetic  taste, 
but  to  the  reason  and  the  capacity  for  rational  trust.  It  lays  before  the 
mind  a  system  of  truth  to  be  apprehended  and  believed,  as  the  basis  of 
all  the  further  experiences  it  awakens  in  the  heart  or  in  the  life.  And 
in  order  to  the  proper  presentation  of  such  a  system  of  truth,  it  needs 
competent  agents  and  representatives, — persons  to  whom  this  task  of 
instruction  may  properly  be  entrusted,  and  by  whose  effort  the  body 
of  believers  may  be  edified,  and  the  Gospel  effectively  commended 
to  men.  Even  during  the  apostolic  age,  and  while  the  Holy  Ghost 
was  miraculously  poured  out  on  many,  and  the  disciples  in  general 
enjoyed  peculiar  opportunities  for  knowing  the  truth  for  themselves, 
such  teachers  were  appointed,  as  we  know,  to  aid  the  Church  in  this 
primary  task  of  edification.  The  presence  of  inspired  prophets,  of  holy 
evangelists,  of  progressive  inspiration,  did  not  obviate  the  necessity 
for  such  a  class  of  qualified  instructors.  Various  titles  besides  that  of 
teacher  were  given  to  those  filling  this  function:  pastor  or  shepherd, 
Jer.  3:  15,  compared  with  Eph.  4.  11,  1  Peter  5  :  2-4:  minister  or 
steward,  1  Cor.  4:  1,  12:  28:  bishop  or  overseer.  Acts  20:  28:  pres- 
byter or  elder,  1  Peter  5:  1.  Other  functions  are  indeed  included  in 
such  titles,  for  the  reason  that  those  Avho  Avere  primarily  called  to  be 
teachers,  were  also,  for  the  most  part,  empowered  to  assist  the  Church 
in  other  official  relations — especially  in  government.  Yet  any  one 
who  studies  carefully  the  Pastoral  Letters,  will  see  at  a  glance  how 
primary  and  how  vital,  in  the  judgment  of  the  apostles  and  their  asso- 
ciates, this  work  of  instruction  was.     Nor   has  time  rendered   this 

'  ScHAFF,  Hist,  of  Apostolic  ChuTch,  i:  1^;  Bingham,  Antiquities  of  the  Christian 
Church,  Book  ii:  Ch.  22.  For  a  valuable  Art.  in  favor  of  tlie  office  of  deaconess 
as  permanent,  see  Preshyt.  Review,  Vol.  i;  No.  ii.  A.  T.  McGill,  D.  D 


PERMANENT   CHURCH   OFFICES.  105 

office  less  important.  As  the  Christian  scheme  of  doctrine  has  devel- 
oped into  theologies  and  creeds,  as  the  antagonisms  between  this  divine 
system  and  human  heresy  and  unbelief  have  become  more  distinct  and 
complex,  as  the  sum  of  saving  faith  has  grown  into  more  extended 
form  during  the  ages  since  the  New  Testament  was  written  and  compiled, 
the  need  of  such  teaching  and  such  teachers  has  the  rather  steadily 
increased.  Not  merely  or  mainly  the  unfolding  of  new  aspects  of 
divine  truth,  but  rather  the  more  careful  explication  and  defence  of 
that  truth  against  all  error,  and  the  general  education  of  believers 
and  their  children,  and  of  all  who  are  willing  to  hear  the  Word,  con- 
stitute the  chief  vocation  of  those  on  w'hom  this  office  rests.  Neither 
do  any  indications  appear  that  such  a  vocation  will  ever  be  needless. 
The  Church  of  Christ  will  have  such  teachers,  at  least  until  millennial 
times:  and  those  sections  of  the  Church  which  appreciate  this  need 
most  fully,  and  most  thoroughly  provide  for  it,  are  most  certain  to 
grow  into  progressive  influence,  into  millennial  maturity. 

2.  The  office  of  government  stands  second  in  this  series  of  permanent 
church  functions.     Without  entering  here  on  the  general  consideration 
of  the  Church  as  a  kingdom,  administering  a  system  of  laws  under  di- 
vine guidance,  we  may  simply  note  the  fact  already  adverted  to,  that 
government  has  in  reality  existed  within  the  Church  in  all-  ages,  and 
that  the  task  of  administering  such  government  has  always  been  com- 
mitted to  men  chosen  and  ordained  for  this  purpose.      Postponing  all 
questions  as  to  the  biblical  form  of  church  polity,  or  to  the  proper  mode 
of  administration,  we  may  still  recognize  the  existence  and  prominence 
of  this  governmental  function.     Especially  are    such  existence   and 
prominence  apparent  under  the  Gospel  economy.     That  the  apostolic 
Church  had  rulers,  is  a  fact  as  unquestionable  as  the  kindred  fact  that 
it  had  teachers.     Some  of  the  titles  already  named,  such  as  bishop  or 
pastor  or  elder,  indicate  this  as  an  undoubted  feature  of  the  primitive 
Church.     Ruling  was  as  essential  as  instruction  in  an  organism  so  con- 
stituted, and  sent  forth  on  such  a  mission  ;  and  provision  was  therefore 
divinely  made  for  this  necessity,  in  the  selection  of  persons  qualified  to 
rule,  and  in  their  official  investiture  within  the  Church.     We  see  the 
apostles  and  other  chosen  brethren  acting  officially  in  this  way,  as  early 
as  the  Council  at  Jerusalem  ;  Acts  15:  22-23.     More  general  allusions 
to  such  a  class  of  rulei-s  appear  in  Acts  20:  28,  Rom.  12:  6-8,  1  Cor. 
12:  28,  Heb.  13:  7,  17,  24,  and  other  passages.     But  it  is  quite  ap- 
parent that  the  function  of  teaching  and  the  function  of  ruling  were 
not  ahvays  vested  in  the  same  person.     While  the  distinction  is  not 
formally  drawn  out,  as  it  would  probably  have  been,  if  the  two  func- 
tions were  always  assigned  to  different  persons,  it  still  is  clear  that  the 
distinction  was  sometimes  recognized;  1  Tim.  5:  17,  1  Peter  5:  2-3, 


lOG  THE   PERSONAL   CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

That  rulers  existed  as  a  class  under  divine  -warrant  in  the  apostolic 
Church  is  thus  evident,  whatever  may  he  held  as  to  the  precise  duties 
devolving  upon  them,  or  the  extent  of  the  authority  wielded  by  thera. 
And  what  was  necessary  in  the  apostolic  Church,  may  be  presumed  to 
be  all  the  more  necessary  since  the  gift  of  inspiration  has  ceased,  and 
since  the  miraculous  manifestations  of  a  divine  i)resence  and  control  have 
been  withdrawn.  In  all  countries  and  ages  this  function  has  in  fact  been 
found  to  be  indispensable  to  the  proper  constituting  and  full  efficiency 
of  the  visible  household  of  faith.  Even  where  such  organization  is 
regarded  as  wholly  spiritual,  and  where  all  formal  official  investiture 
is  condemned  as  incompatible  with  the  nature  of  the  family  of  grace, 
the  essential  fact  in  the  case  remains ;  the  official  function  still  finds 
recognition. 

3.  In  connection  Avith  the  two  primary  offices  of  instruction  and 
government,  we  may  note  a  third  office  which  appeared  very  early  in 
the  primitive  Church,  and  which,  like  the  two  preceding,  seems  essential 
to  the  full  constituting  of  the  Church  for  its  great  mission  among  men, 
— the  office  of  administration.  The  sphere  for  such  an  office  lies  out- 
side of  both  teaching  and  ruling, — it  includes  the  general  care  of  the 
organized  body,  in  what  may  be  described  as  its  external  work  and  rela- 
tions. The  germ  of  the  office  appears  in  the  j^rovision  made  for  daily 
ministration  to  the  saints,  during  the  peculiar  experiences  following  the 
Pentecost ;  Acts  6 :  1-6.  The  line  of  distinction  between  the  spiritual 
and  the  temporal  in  church  life  was  there  clearly  drawn  by  Peter ;  and 
the  provision  then  made,  continued  to  exist  long  after  the  special  need 
which  he  so  tersely  describes,  had  passed  away.  There  was  seen  to  be 
a  large  sphere  of  oversight  and  administration,  not  merely  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  church  charities,  but  in  many  other  directions,  in  Avhich 
the  teacher  or  ruler  could  not  so  effectively  act, — which  required  a 
separate  class  of  official  jDersons.  Without  referring  to  general  allu- 
sions to  the  diaconate,  found  in  the  Pauline  epistles  (Phil.  1:1),  Ave 
may  note  the  careful  description  of  the  Christian  deacon  in  1  Tim. 
3:  8-13,  as  proving  beyond  question  the  existence  of  such  a  class,  and 
the  importance  of  their  functions  in  the  apostolic  age.  Nor  Avas  this  an 
office  Avhich  existed  for  a  season  only.  The  need  Avhich  created  it  at 
the  first  still  exists, — is  in  fact  as  extensi\"e  and  as  enduring  as  the 
Church.  While  the  special  call  which  first  pi'oduced  the  office  has 
passed  away,  other  and  broader  aspects  of  that  call  have  become 
equally  apparent  and  equally  urgent.  Rather  is  it  true  that  Avith  the 
more  complex  development  of  the  Church, — Avith  the  Avidening  variety 
of  needs,  and  the  multiplication  and  more  elaborate  classification  of 
official  duties,  the  necessity  in  the  case  has  been  greatly  enhanced. 
May  it  not  even  be  affirmed  that  this  office  of  administration,  though 


OFFICERS  REQUISITE  IX   THE   CHURCH.  107 

perhaps  inferior  in  sphere,  fills  a  place  in  the  permanent  life  of  the 
Church,  no  less  vital  than  that  of  government  or  instruction,  and 
must  therefore  be  as  legitimate  and  enduring  a  constituent  in  its  organ- 
ization as  they  ? 

In  the  three  offices  thus  sketched,  all  the  great  primal  needs  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  are  fully  met.  Wherever  provision  is  properly  made 
for  instruction,  for  government,  and  for  administration,  in  the  broad 
sense  just  defined,  any  church  organization  may  regard  itself  as  fully 
equipped  alike  for  inward  efficiency  and  for  outward  growth.  No 
other  official  functions  are  needful ;  under  these  three  terms  all  legiti- 
mate church  functions  and  services  may  be  classed. 

XIII.  Officers  Requisite  in  the  Church. — The  consideration 
of  these  three  offices,  or  classes  of  official  service,  suggests  at  once  the 
further  fact,  that  every  such  office  requires  a  person  in  whom  its  func- 
tions are  for  the  time  embodied,  and  by  whose  active  services  these 
church  needs  are  efficiently  supplied.  Respecting  this  personal  ele- 
ment, some  further  suggestions  may  here  be  introduced : 

The  conspicuous  place  of  the  ministry  within  the  Church  will,  under 
this  general  view,  be  apparent  at  a  glance.  Whether  that  ministry  be 
regarded  as  essentially  one  order,  or  as  divided  into  three  distinct 
classes — whatever  the  theory  as  to  the  way  in  which  this  order  becomes 
possessed  of  its  high  functions,  or  to  the  measure  of  accountability  to 
the  Church  for  the  use  of  its  official  position,  there  can  be  no  question 
as  to  the  underlying  truth,  that  a  church  Avithout  a  minister  is  not  in 
the  full  scrijDtural  sense  a  church.  In  forming  our  conceptions  of  the 
minister  in  this  relation,  we  are  indeed  carefully  to  distinguish  between 
the  biblical  germ  in  Avhich  the  office  originated,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
development  that  has  followed  with  the  ages.  For,  it  is  quite  obvious 
that  the  simple  servant  of  the  Church,  who  at  first,  as  bishop  or  pastor 
or  elder,  had  general  charge  of  the  flock  of  Christ  under  apostolic 
warrant,  had  his  lines  of  labor  and  of  duty  much  less  closely  defined, 
and  was  himself  much  less  consciously  and  distinctively  an  official 
person,  than  his  successors  are  under  any  existing  form  of  church 
polity.  The  three  classes  of  function  which  have  been  described,  were 
also  far  less  obviously  separate,  and  flowed  together  within  the  grasp 
of  one  and  the  same  person  much  more  freely.  For  the  elaborate 
division  of  this  holy  order  into  a  succession  of  officers,  invested  with 
varying  grades  of  service  and  prerogative,  and  for  all  the  formalities 
and  dignities  with  which  this  order  is  now  decorated,  even  in  the  simpler 
forms  of  current  ecclesiastical  organization,  one  looks  in  vain  to  find 
any  definite  provision  in  the  constitution  of  the  primitive  Church. 
The  minister  of  Christ,  as  sketched  in  the  New  Testament,  was  on  the 
one  side  a  simple  pastor  or  teacher  of  his  brethren,  and  on  the  other 


108  Tin:  j'i:nsoNAL  constituents  of  the  church. 

an  overseer  or  rule.'  inspired  by  love,  and  animated  in  all  his  adminis- 
tration Avitli  the  henignant  temper  of  service,  but  without  special  title, 
or  any  high  official  prerogatives.  The  sketches  which  Paul  has  given 
in  his  letters  to  Timothy  and  Titus  show  us,  as  no  uninspired  descrij)- 
tion  could  do,  just  wdiat  the  minister  was  designed  to  be,  and  what 
during  the  apostolic  age  he  doubtless  was:  shepherd  and  bishop,  pastor 
and  overseer  and  ruler,  and  robed  in  these  functions  with  a  saintly 
grace  peculiarly  his  own,  still  in  every  station  the  servant,  even  the 
slave,  of  his  brethren  for  the  s.ike  of  Christ,  his  Lord;  2  Cor.  4:  5. 

The  call  to  this  sacred  office  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  an  inherited 
vocation  like  that  of  the  Jewish  priest :  it  was  not  a  special  investiture 
transmitted  from  apostolic  hands,  without  the  action  or  approbation 
of  the  Church.  The  glimpse  of  church  method  given  in  the  election 
of  Matthias,  doubtless  became  an  example  largely  and  reverently  fol- 
lowed. While  we  see  the  apostles,  and  others  under  their  sanction, 
officially  appointing  elders  in  every  city  (Titus  1  :  5),  and  thus  organ- 
izing the  Churches  as  by  divine  warrant,  we  have  clear,  concurrent 
indications  that  the  call  of  God  habitually  verified  and  approved  itself 
in  the  estimate  of  the  Christian  flock.  No  one  assumed  the  sacred 
office  for  himself:  the  summons  of  the  Spirit,  the  acquiescing  judg- 
ment of  His  people,  were  its  recognized  ground  and  basis,  Heb.  5  :  4. 
The  essential  elements  of  this  call  remain  the  same  at  all  periods: 
first,  such  natural  endowments  and  such  a  measure  of  culture  as  will 
enable  their  possessor  to  fill  the  office  adequately :  secondly,  personal 
experience  of  religion,  and  a  supreme  willingness  to  be  exclusively 
devoted  to  this  service:  thirdly,  providential  indications  pointing 
toward  that  service  as  a  life  vocation:  and  fourthly  and  supremely, 
the  movings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  soul,  intelligently  apprehended, 
and  the  concurrent  judgment  of  the  visible  Church.  Undoubtedly 
such  a  call  should  not  be  a  single  or  a  casual  experience :  it  should  be 
heard  again  and  again,  and  should  become  the  controlling  impulse  and 
motive  in  the  life.  ^ 

The  functions  of  the  Christian  minister  are  easily  apprehended. 
While  they  include  primarily  all  that  is  implied  in  the  term,  instruc- 
tion, they  also  include  some  prominent  share  in  the  government,  and 
even  in  the  general  administration  of  the  household  of  faith.  Though 
he  is  not  to  assume  the  exercise  of  such  administration  or  government  to 
the  exclusion  of  others,  or  to  claim  a  right  to  such  exercise  apart  from 
the  judgment  or  determination  of  the  church,  as  Romanism  affirms, 
yet  there  is  a  certain  concentration  of  offices  in  his  person,  such  as 


'ViNET,  Pas<.  TAcoL-  Introduction,  sec.  7.  Also,  Bkidges,  Christian  Ministnj  : 
BuKNET,  Pastoral  Care:  Baxter,  Reformed  Pastor,  Tarti:  Wayland,  Ministry  of 
the  Gospel :  Letter  2. 


CHURCH   OFFICEKS:    CALL   AND   FUNCTIONS.  109 

makes  him  of  necessity  a  central  ageut  or  factor  in  all  departments  of 
the  church  life.  It  is  his  sacred  vocation,  in  the  highest  sense  of  that 
term,  to  edify  those  who  are  divinely  committed  to  his  charge  ;  Iniild- 
ing  them  up  not  merely  on  their  most  holy  faith,  but  equally  in  all 
the  diversified  aspects  of  their  religious  experience  and  calling.  It  is 
no  less  his  high  task  to  represent  the  Gospel,  and  to  proclaim  it  by 
every  available  method  to  all  persons  of  whatever  class,  whom  he  may 
be  able  to  reach.  Like  the  Church  itself,  or  the  sanctuary  within 
whose  walls  he  chiefly  ministers,  he  is  to  stand  forth  in  the  community 
as  a  visible,  permanent  representative  of  the  divine  faith  which  he 
proclaims;  ever  bending  his  energies  to  the  one  business  of  leading 
mankind  to  salvation,  and  to  this  end  laying  aside  all  other  vocations 
and  interests  in  life.  Of  the  inherent  worth,  of  the  peculiar  privileges 
and  dignities,  of  the  sublime  rewards  of  such  a  ministry,  when  ani- 
mated by  the  apostolic  spirit,  and  conducted  according  to  scriptural 
principles  and  methods,  volumes  might  be  written. 

Nor  is  this  sketch  peculiar  to  the  Christian  minister.  At  the  first, 
he  shared  even  the  primary  function  of  instruction,  and  eminently  the 
functions  of  administration  and  of  government,  Avith  others  whom  the 
church  recognized  as  qualified  to  discharge  these  high  trusts ;  and  their 
activities  were  hai'dly  less  essential  than  his  to  the  healthfid  condition 
of  the  visible  body  of  believers.  Doubtless  the  two  latter  functions 
were  not  always  separated  by  broad  lines;  as  the  teacher  governed,  the 
ruler  also  instructed,  nor  is  it  unlikely  that  those  holding  the  diaconate 
sometimes  taught,  or  even  ruled,  in  churches  where  abundant  materials 
for  filling  such  official  positions  were  not  easily  found.  The  Stephen 
whose  name  stands  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  deacons,  was  full  of  faith 
and  power ;  he  wrought  miracles  and  wonders  among  the  people,  and 
so  testified  to  the  truth  in  disputations  in  the  synagogue,  that  liis  oppo- 
nents Avere  not  able  to  resist  the  wisdom  and  the  spirit  with  wliicli  he 
spake, — finally  attesting  his  faith  and  loyalty  to  the  truth  in  martyr- 
dom. And  from  the  apostolic  usage,  we  may  learn  the  universal  law ; 
that  as  in  that  age,  so  in  all  ages  there  should  be  other  official  persons 
as  well  as  the  minister  in  the  visible  Church ;  that  to  these  persons  no 
less  than  to  him,  are  the  tasks  of  government  and  administration  and 
even  of  instruction  assigned ;  and  that  upon  those  who  fill  such  offices, 
special  honor  and  privilege  as  well  as  responsil)ility  do  fitly  rest. 
Without  adverting  here  to  any  particular  questions  suggested  at  this 
point,  such  as  the  separation  or  blending  of  these  functions,  or  the  cre- 
ation of  one  or  two  classes  of  such  adjunctive  oflScers,  or  the  manner 
in  which  they  shall  severally  receive  their  appointment  and  authority, 
\ve  may  rest  for  the  present  in  the  general  facts  and  principles  just 
given.     It  is  specially  incumbent  upon   Protestantism   to  emphasize 


110  THE  TERSONAL  CONSTITUENTS   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

these  related  offices  and  officers,  since  the  Papal  Church  has  so  largely 
ignored  them ;  and  to  give  to  those  who  administer  and  to  those  who 
rule,  the  just  share  of  both  the  dignity  and  the  control  which  the 
Papacy  confers  on  the  priesthood  alone. 

XIV.  Church  Officers:  Further  Questions  Noted. — The  gen- 
eral doctrine  here  presented,  sheds  light  on  the  specific  question  of  offi- 
cial investiture.  It  is  one  of  the  fundamental  errors  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  that  the  priesthood  is  an  office  transmitted  from  generation  to 
generation  through  the  priestly  orders,  and  without  the  voice  or  appro- 
bation of  the  Church.  It  is  the  priesthood,  not  the  congregation,  which 
selects  and  constitutes  the  priest;  it  is  the  clerical  body  in  conclave  as- 
sembled, not  the  Church,  which  chooses  and  officially  crowns  the  pope. 
Protestantism  admits  the  existence  of  no  such  prerogative.  It  refers 
all  official  investiture  on  the  one  side  directly  to  Christ,  and  on  the 
other  immediately  to  the  Church.  No  minister,  for  example,  becomes 
such  without  authority  of  the  JNIaster,  authenticated  by  the  judgment 
of  His  people ;  no  person  however  qualified  can  receive  or  hold  office 
of  any  class  in  any  other  way.  The  right  to  transmit  official  preroga- 
tives independently  of  the  Church  was  not  claimed  even  by  the  apos- 
tles, neither  did  the  leaders  of  the  primitive  Church  act  in  any  instance 
as  if  such  right  were  vested  in  them.  Christ  and  His  Church  alone 
can  create  even  the  humblest  among  the  official  servants  in  that  divine 
household. 

It  follow^s  also  that  the  authority  vested  in  church  officers  is  not 
native  in  the  person,  but  belongs  to  the  office — is  not  inherent  but 
delegated :  and  is  therefore  to  be  exercised  under  a  due  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility to  those  who  confer  it.  This  authority  is  also  limited 
rather  than  comprehensive:  it  includes  just  such  functions  and  duties 
as  the  Scriptures  and  the  chui'ch  assign  to  the  person  holding  it ;  it  con- 
veys no  warrant  for  official  administration  beyond  the  bounds  thus 
described.  All  attempts  to  intermeddle  Avith  whatever  lies  outside  of 
such  boundaries,  all  effort  to  lord  it  over  the  heritage  of  (lod  in  direc- 
tions Avhere  the  individual  conscience  or  the  claim  of  the  body  of  be- 
lievers is  by  divine  right  supreme,  all  assertion  of  dignities  or  enrob- 
ing in  the  purple  and  pomp  of  hierarchy,  are  both  treason  to  the 
Church  and  disloyalty  to  Christ,  its  divine  Head  and  Lord. 

As  official  authority  is  limited  in  sphere,  so  it  is  in  many  ways 
limited  in  time  and  opportunity.  It  is  indeed  a  common  Protestant 
view,  and  one  which  has  some  measure  of  biblical  Avarrant,  that  all 
official  investiture  in  the  Church  is  for  life.  Yet  many  sections  of 
Protestantism  limit  the  sweep  of  this  principle  by  affirming  a  distinction 
between  the  office  itself  and  the  exercise  of  its  functions,  and  by  re- 
garding the  latter  as  temporary  and  occasional,  though  the  former  be 


SPIKIT   OF   OFFICIAL   SERVICE.  Ill 

permanent.  These  practical  limitations  are  often  extended  so  far,  on 
account  of  mental  inadequacy  or  advancing  ag"  or  spiritual  incom- 
petency, or  the  failure  to  command  church  support,  that  the  official  title 
becomes  a  fiction, — ceases  to  be  anything  beyond  a  name.  And  it  may 
well  be  questioned,  whether  an  office,  which  for  any  such  cause  can 
never  be  exercised  ])y  the  incumbent,  might  not,  for  the  welfare  of  all 
the  parties,  and  in  the  interest  of  Christian  sincerity,  be  formally  sur- 
rendered. It  would  probably  be  a  decided  gain  to  the  common  Prot- 
estantism, if  the  length  of  time  during  which  any  church  oflfice  should 
be  held,  were  in  all  cases  distinctly  bounded,  if  not  by  some  periodic 
limitation  in  time,  still  by  the  manifested  competency  of  the  person 
appointed  to  fill  it. 

It  may  finally  be  suggested  here  that  no  peril  more  subtle,  no  evil 
more   disastrous,  attends  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth,  than  those 
which  in  various  ways  accompany  this  problem  of  office  and   official 
function.     More  than  all  external  causes,  and  possibly  more  than  all 
internal  heresies  and  controversies,  has  this  problem  agitated,  convulsed, 
divided  Christendom,  from  the  apostolic  age  down  to  our  own.     It  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  most  of  those  conflictiug  conceptions   of  polity 
and  order,  which  have  so  often  rent  the  one  Church  into  a  series  of  sep- 
arate denominations,  not  merely  at  variance  in  opinion,  but  antagonis- 
tic in  spirit  and  action.    In  the  particular  church,  it  is  easily  recognized 
as  first  among  those  divisive  influences  by  which  the  household  is  torn 
into  sections  and  embittered  by  factious  conflicts,  inimical  if  not  fatal 
to  the  spiritual  life  of  all  the  members.     Here  personal  ambitions, 
partisan  feelings,  intestinal  strifes,  sectarian  narrowness  and  bitterness, 
find  their  chief  sphere  and  opportunity.     Here  the  best  affections  of 
disciples  are  arrested  in  their  action,  the  purest  purposes  are  frustrated, 
and  the  noblest  elements  in  Christian  manhood  are  crippled  in  their 
action  and  influence.     In  a  word,  the  spirit  of  hierarchy  is  the  ever 
threatening  peril,  the  chiefest  evil,  of  organic  Christianity.     And  the 
only  possible  antidote  lies  in  the  broadest,  most  continuous  and  urgent 
enunciation  of  the  holy  precept  of  our  Lord,  embodied  for  His  Church 
through  all  time  in  the  golden  sentence,  Avhich  to  every  one  holding 
official  station   within  that  Church  is  a  supreme   commission  :  I  am 

AMONG  YOU  AS  ONE  THAT  SEKVETH. 


112  THE  CHURCH  as  a  divine  kingdom. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  CHURCH  AS  A  DIVINE  KINGDOM: 

GOVERNMENT,    POLITIES,    DISCIPLINE. 

The  impersonal  and  also  the  personal  constituents  of  the 
Church  have  now  been  passed  in  brief  review.  The  next 
question  to  be  considered  relates  to  the  peculiar  organization 
in  which  these  various  elements  are  embodied, — to  that 
Church  viewed  as  a  divine  structure,  vested  witli  the  right 
to  govern  and  discipline  itself,  and  qualified  to  stand  forth 
in  human  society  as  an  independent  and  enduring  kingdom 
of  grace.  Three  topics  here  present  themselves  for  inves- 
tigation :  Church  Government  in  general,  Polities  in  the 
Church,  and  Church  Order  and  Discipline. 

I.  The  Church  as  a  Structure:  General  Conception. — Even 
in  the  patriarclial  age,  the  Church  is  seen  to  he,  not  an  aggregate  of 
dissimilar  elements,  but  a  living  organism,  bound  together  in  every 
part  by  the  common  principle  of  piety.  In  the  Hebraic  Church,  for- 
mal and  external  as  the  uniting  tie  appears  in  conjunction  with  the 
Hebrew  connnonwealth,  tlie  same  spiritual  structure  is  still  apparent; 
the  Church  is  an  organized  institution  within  the  State,  and  as  such 
maintains  its  vitality  and  efficiency  even  while  the  State  is  passing  into 
decay.  Under  the  Gospel  this  self-organizing  capacity,  and  this  inde- 
pendent life,  are  still  more  manifest.  While  our  Lord  lays  hroad  and 
sure  foundations  for  His  Church,  and  makes  adequate  provision  for 
its  organization  under  the  guidance  of  His  apostles.  He  commits  the 
task  of  specific  construction  to  the  spiritual  body  itself  He  jirovides 
doctrines,  sacraments,  ordinances ;  He  brings  together  the  company  of 
those  who  believe,  and  defines  their  mutual  relations  and  their  conunon 
work;  He  lays  down  the  fundamental  principles  of  Church  govern- 
ment. But  He  leaves  them  to  organize  themselves,  according  to  such 
models  as  the  Jewish  Church,  and  poabibly  the  Hebrew  or  the  Eoman 
state,  placed  before  them.  While  in  Tlis  appointment  of  the  twelve, 
and  of  the  seventy,  and  in  some  6ther  specific  provisions.  He  makes 
place  for  government  and  for  offices  and  officers.  He  chooses  to  lay 
the  work  of  organization  upon  His  disciples,  under  the  direction  of 
His  Spirit,  and  of  His  commissioned  representatives.     The  reasons  for 


THE   CHURCH,  A    SPIRITUAL   STRUCTURi:.  113 

such  a  procedure  have  been  noticed  ah-eady;  the  fact  is  unquestionable, 
and  in  many  ways  is  one  of  deep  significance. 

Thus  the  Christian  Church,  at  the  Pentecost  a  simple  aggregation 
of  disciples,  soon  became  by  virtue  of  such  inherent  capabilities,  and 
under  such  guidance,  a  spiritual  structure,  more  complete  and  beauti- 
ful than  the  Patriarchal  or  the  Hebraic  Church  had  ever  been.  The 
New  Testament  was  its  constitution,  and  whatever  laws  it  needed  from 
time  to  time,  were  framed  by  it  on  this  divine  basis.  Apostolic  in- 
spiration indeed  guided  it,  but  in  such  manner  as  left  free  room  for  the 
exercise  of  a  sanctified  judgment  on  all  points  of  detail,  whether  in 
enactment  or  in  administration.  The  oflices  of  the  bishop,  the  pastor, 
the  elder,  the  ruler,  the  deacon,  sprang  into  being  as  they  were  need- 
ful ;  government  grew  progressively  into  shape  and  power.  Before  the 
close  of  the  apostolic  century,  we  see  the  Church  standing  forth  every- 
Avhere,  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome,  not  always  in  the  same  form,  or 
always  under  the  same  regulative  conditions,  but  in  all  varieties  a  liv- 
ing institution, — as  firmly  built  up  on  constitutional  foundations  as  the 
Roman  State.  It  was  no  longer  an  aggregate  or  accumulation  ;  it  was 
an  organism,  a  spiritual  kingdom. 

As  such,  the  power  of  the  keys — as  it  is  termed — was  fully  vested  in 
the  Church.  Granted  at  first  to  Peter,  and  to  the  other  apostles  as  in 
trust,  this  power  Avas  not  to  be  transmitted  by  them  to  a  hierarchal 
body  of  their  own  construction,  and  acting  independently  of  the 
Church,  but  was  to  be  transferred  to  the  household  of  faith  and 
wielded  by  it.  Such  hierarchal  investiture  with  the  right  to  govern 
the  Church,  from  age  to  age,  without  the  choice  or  option  of  the  flock, 
is  simply  a  prelatic  fiction,  never  suggested  in  Scripture  and  fraught — 
as  the  history  of  the  Papacy  has  shown — with  immeasurable  mischief. 
It  is  the  Church,  and  the  Church  alone,  which  through  such  agencies 
or  instruments  as  it  selects,  wields  this  sacred  dominion  in  full  respon- 
sibility to  its  ascended  Lord.  Among  the  forms  in  Avhich  this  power 
of  the  keys  is  to  be  exercised  by  the  Church,  the  first  is  the  right  to 
determine,  under  the  direction  of  Scripture,  the  terms  of  admission  to 
its  circle ;  the  second,  is  the  right  to  make  and  to  enforce  all  laws  and 
regulations  needful  to  the  completeness  of  its  organization,  or  to  its 
full  efiiciency  as  an  organized  body;  the  third  is  the  right  to  discipline 
unfaithful  members,  as  by  admonition  or  by  withholding  from  them 
certain  privileges,  sacramental  or  otherwise,  entrusted  to  its  keeping ; 
and  the  fourth  is  the  right  to  purify  itself  whenever  needful,  by  the 
expulsion  of  errorists  or  grossly  unworthy  persons.  In  general,  every 
church  has  an  inherent  right  under  the  guidance  of  the  Word  of  God, 
to  take  whatever  steps  are  necessary  to  its  strengthening,  its  develop- 
ment, its  perfection,  as  a  branch  of  the  Church  of  Chiist  among  men. 


114  THE   CIIUUCII    AS   A    DlVIXi:    KINGDOM. 

And  this  right  is  vested,  not  in  any  grouj)  of  officials  appointed  by 
foreign  authority  to  act  for  the  body,  but  in  the  body  of  believers  them- 
selves. Within  biblical  warrant  they  may  indeed  commit  the  exercise 
of  this  right  to  persons  chosen  for  the  purpose,  but  they  can  not  alien- 
ate that  right,  or  free  themselves  from  final  responsibility  for  tlic 
manner  in  which  it  may  be  wielded  by  their  representatives.  In  a 
word,  the  Church  is  a  self-governing  organism ;  official  persons,  acting 
for  it,  are  agents  oidy.^ 

Hence  the  Church  is  in  a  true  sense  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 
This  phrase  is  variously  used,  both  in  Scripture  and  elsewhere.  It 
refers  .sometimes  to  the  general  providence  of  God,  as  exercised  in 
sovereignty  over  His  earthly  creation,  and  sometimes  to  His  moral 
government  as  wielded  over  men  or  nations.  In  the  sphere  of  grace, 
the  phrase  points  sometimes  to  the  holy  sway  of  religion  within  the 
individual  soul,  or  to  the  progressive  influence  of  the  Gospel  as  a  sov- 
ereign force  in  human  life,  or  to  the  ultimate  triumph  of  God  over  all 
enemies,  in  the  complete  establisment  of  His  gracious  dominion.  It 
is  thus  obvious  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  the  Church  of  Christ, 
whether  visible  or  invisible,  are  not  always  synonymous  in  meaning 
or  coterminous  in  extent.  Yet  in  its  essence  the  Kingdom  is  gracious 
rather  than  providential,  and  the  Church  is  ever  the  central  sphere 
within  which  the  Kingdom  becomes  specially  manifest.  And  as  the 
sway  of  grace  progresses  in  the  earth,  it  may  be  anticijjated  that  the 
bounding  lines  of  the  two  conceptions  will  draw  together  more  and 
more  closely,  until  finally  in  the  fullest  sense  the  Kingdom  and  the 
Church  will  become  one,  with  Christ  as  the  recognized  Head  in  prov- 
idence and  in  moral  administration,  as  well  as  in  grace. 

II.  Criuucii  Government  Defined  and  Justified. — The  term, 
government,  may  be  defined  as  the  regulation  or  constraint  of  indi- 
vidual action,  by  proper  authority  administering  law  in  the  interest 
of  human  society.  It  implies  first  of  all,  the  existence  of  a  commu- 
nity of  individuals,  who  are  to  be  brought  into  subservience  to  somo 
common  control.  Such  community  involves  more  than  casual  or  occa- 
sional association:  government  never  springs  into  existence  through 
transient  contact,  but  is  rather  an  outgrowth  of  fixed,  enduring  fellow- 
ship. There  must  be  a  society  in  the  true  sense,  with  recognized  rights 
and  interests,  and  with  power  to  regulate  individual  freedom  within 
such  limits  as  these  interests  and  rights  may  prescribe. 

The  existence  of  law,  and  of  an  authority  empowered  and  adequate 

'  CuNxiXGiiAM ;  Church  Principles,  Cliap.  xi :  Church  Power.  Luther,  Articles 
of  Smnlaild.  "The  keys  belong  not  to  any  man,  but  to  the  Churcli.  Wlierever 
the  (Mnirch  is,  there  is  tlie  riglit  of  administration,  under  tlie  Gospel." — IIodgk, 
Church  Polity,  p.  142.     Lytton  ;  Church  of  Christ,  Book  in,  Chap.  ii. 


CHURCH  GOVERNMENT   DEFINED.  115 

to  enforce  law,  is  also  implied  in  the  idea  of  government.  Whatever 
the  source  from  which  such  law  may  have  been  originally  derived,  or 
whatever  the  inherent  qualities  of  the  law  as  announced,  the  control 
exercised  over  the  individual  will  and  life  must  be  a  control  under 
law.  No  private  person  becomes  a  law  unto  himself,  or  is  a  source 
of  law  to  others  in  this  connection :  it  is  society  which  prescribes  the 
principles  and  rules  by  Avhich  its  members  are  to  be  controlled  for  its 
welfare.  It  is  society  also  which  gives  form  and  efficiency  to  the  au- 
thority by  which  law  is  administered  and  enforced.  Such  authority 
stands  forth  in  the  community  as  the  representative  both  of  law,  and 
of  the  social  force  through  which  law  is  to  be  applied  to  individual 
life. 

This  general  definition  of  government  is  applicable  to  the  Church, 
and  eminently  to  the  Christian  Church,  at  each  of  these  three  points. 
That  Church  is  not  a  casual  fellowship,  a  transient  association,  but  a 
settled  community,  held  together  by  a  common  life,  and  having  interests 
and  rights  which  it  is  bound  to  protect  and  to  foster.  It  is  a  commu- 
nity existing  under  law, — law  derived  primarily  from  the  Scripture  as 
an  authoritative  source,  and  enjoined  through  the  personal  command  of 
Christ  as  its  Head,  but  defined  and  ajiplied  to  each  member,  in  the 
interest  of  all,  by  the  community  itself.  It  is  a  community  divinely 
invested  with  authority  to  enforce  its  own  regulations,— possessing  the 
right  to  require  obedience,  or  within  certain  limits  to  visit  disobedience 
with  discipline  or  punishment.  Its  exercise  of  such  authority  is  de- 
clarative and  ministerial  only,  but  is  on  this  account  none  the  less 
significant  or  effective.  The  Church  is  thus,  in  its  constitution,  a  gov- 
ernment,— a  spiritual  community  controlling  its  members,  through 
the  administration  of  scriptural  law  by  ajipropriate  authorities,  for 
the  furtherance  of  those  great  ends  in  whose  interest  it  was  divinely 
established. 

Such  church  goverment  is  plainly  justified  by  many  practical  consid- 
erations. It  might  be  argued  from  analogy  that,  since  government  Is 
essential  to  the  welfare  of  both  communities  and  individuals  in  other 
spheres — since  both  the  family  and  the  state  depend  largely  upon  it 
for  their  comfort  and  their  usefulness,  the  Church  needs  to  be  organ- 
ized in  this  form,  in  order  to  accomplish  most  efficiently  its  own  spir- 
itual ends.  These  ends  indeed  differ  Avidely  from  those  sought  in  the 
state  or  the  family,  and  from  their  own  nature  must  be  diflTerently 
secured.  It  is  also  obvious  that  in  the  household  of  faith,  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-government  has  far  wider  field  for  action:  the  several 
members  may  be  expected,  under  the  consciousness  of  immediate  re- 
sponsibility to  Christ  as  well  as  to  His  people,  to  control  their  private 
action  with  closer  reference  to  the  common  good.     Yet  Christians  do 


116  THE   CIIURCir    AS   A    DIVINE   KINGDOM. 

not  always  govern  themselves  wisely,  or  properly  shape  their  conduct  so 
as  to  secure  the  best  interests  of  all :  and  so  far  as  they  are  defective 
in  such  respects,  as  children  in  a  family,  they  obviously  need  the  just 
constraint,  the  regulative  guidance,  of  the  common  body.  What  we 
observe  in  this  direction  in  all  other  deparments  of  life,  is  seen  to  exist 
at  least  in  some  measure  within  this  si:)iritual  sphere. — This  argument 
is  strengthened  by  what  we  know  respecting  the  social  constitution  of 
the  Church,  as  a  company  of  persons  varying  widely  in  sex,  age, 
social  condition,  varieties  of  temperament,  natural  types  of  character; 
and  therefore  needing  on  many  sides  such  organizing  and  regulating 
power  at  the  center,  as  will  transform  tlieir  association  into  a  permanent 
blessing  to  each  and  to  all.  The  peculiar  nature  of  the  fellowship  into 
which  such  diversitied  individuals  and  classes  are  introduced,  adds  em- 
phasis to  the  demand  for  such  governmental  control.  If  the  multiplied 
impulses,  tastes,  desires,  plans  of  such  an  aggregate  are  to  be  turned 
to  good  account — if  all  are  to  be  drawn  into  unity  around  the  great 
verities  of  grace,  and  animated  by  the  same  holy  aflectious  and  pur- 
poses, and  fully  utilized  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Church  itself,  viewed 
as  a  community,  that  community  must  assume  the  form  of  a  kingdom 
as  Avell  as  that  of  a  family,  and  must  robe  itself  as  such  with  all  rules 
and  authorities  adequate  to  secure  these  vital  ends. 

Contemplating  government  in  its  relations  to  the  purity,  and  to  the 
spiritual  unity  of  the  Church,  the  argument  for  its  existence  is  still 
further  strengthened.  It  is  of  course  admitted  that  the  chief  agency 
in  this  respect  lies  in  the  purifying  power  of  grace  in  the  believing 
heart — in  the  hallowing  and  unifying  influence  of  holy  love,  throbbing 
in  the  breast  of  each  believer,  and  drawing  all  spontaneously  into  one- 
ness, and  into  loyalty  to  the  truth  and  to  the  common  organization. 
Yet  experience  has  shown  that  some  external  regulation  is  needed  in 
addition  to  these  inward  forces; — that  law  and  authority  are  needful  to 
guide  these  inward  sentiments  into  right  and  useful  expression,  and 
that  the  sentiments  themselves  grow  into  strength  and  perfectness  only 
when  they  are  thus  trained  by  the  experienced  hand  of  the  Christian 
community.  The  history  of  church  organizations  is  conckisive  here: 
for  those  which  are  best  governed,  are  precisely  those  in  which  these 
results  appear  in  most  satisfactory  form  and  measure. — That  govern- 
ment is  essential  also  to  the  growth  of  the  Church,  and  to  its  success 
in  the  accomplishment  of  its  divine  mission,  is  another  practical  argu- 
ment for  its  existence.  Whether  we  contemplate  the  Church  at  large, 
or  any  particular  church,  we  see  at  a  glance  that  the  sublime  ends  for 
which  these  are  established,  can  not  be  effectively  attained  Avithout 
organization — Avithout  law  and  authority  directing  the  movements  of 
each  member  for  the  general  good.     And  on  this,  as  on  the  preceding 


CIIUKCII   GOVERNMENT   IN   SCRIPTURE.  117 

f^rounds,  it  may  justly  be  argued  tliat  government  is  indispensable,  as 
an  organizing,  controlling,  inspiring,  productive  factor  in  church  life. 

III.  CiiuRCu  Government  in  Scripture. — These  general  consid- 
erations in  support  of  the  right  of  Church  government  to  exist,  are 
abundantly  confirmed  by  what  we  actually  see  of  this  element  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  as  recorded  in  the  Bible.  Recurring  to  the 
patriarchal  period,  when  the  Church  dwelt  chiefly  in  the  family,  we 
find  Xoah,  Abraham,  Jacob,  exercising  spiritual  as  well  as  natural  au- 
thority in  their  families;  Gen  18:  19.  In  the  Hebraic  Church,  we 
find  at  first  a  strictly  theocratic  rule,  determining  both  the  duties  of 
the  body  and  the  obligations  of  the  individual,  and  in  all  cases  requir- 
ing loyal  obedience  as  a  condition  of  membership.  By  degrees  this 
right  to  govern  is  transmitted  to  the  priesthood,  and  still  later  to  the 
prophetic  order,  under  a  double  sense  of  accountability,  first  to  Jeho- 
vah, and  then  to  His  people.  The  law  by  which  all  were  to  be  guided, 
was  divinely  revealed:  and  the  functions  of  the  religious  ruler  were 
limited  to  the  promulgation  and  enforcement  of  that  law.  At  length 
we  observe  the  singular  phenomenon  of  church  government  as  thus 
constituted,  surviving  and  even  increasing  in  vigor,  while  the  civil 
government  first  associated  with  it  is  broken  down,  and  passes  out  of 
sight. 

Under  the  Gospel,  the  fact  of  government  is  distinctly  stated  by 
our  Lord,  though  its  full  realization,  as  we  have  seen,  belongs  to  the 
apostolic  age.  While  Christ  more  often  adverts  to  His  spiritual  king- 
dom as  a  dominion  within  the  soul  (Luke  17:  20-1),  or  as  a  holy 
force  working  in  human  society  (Matt.  13:  33),  He  sometimes  uses  the 
phrase  with  evident  reference  to  the  relation  of  believer  to  believer 
within  the  Church,  and  to  the  Church  itself  as  a  spiritual  empire.  We 
may  also  note  here  the  marked  passage,  Matt.  18 :  15-18,  Avhich  as  to 
both  principle  and  manner,  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  legitimate  church  dis- 
cipline. The  corresponding  passage.  Matt.  16  :  19,  illustrated  by  the 
more  specific  reference  in  John  20 :  23,  if  we  substitute  the  true,  in- 
stead of  the  false  or  papal  interpretation  of  the  words,  is  a  plain  investi- 
ture, not  of  Peter  as  primate,  or  of  the  apostles  generally,  but  of  the 
Church  itself  with  the  right  of  government.  And  Avhile,  for  reasons 
already  stated,  the  Messiah  did  not  proceed  to  organize  His  Church 
formally,  with  complete  law,  and  with  adequate  authorities  appointed 
by  Himself,  we  still  find  church  government  resting  essentially  and 
firmly  on  what  He  said  and  did. 

The  apostolic  teaching,  based  on  that  of  our  Lord,  is  specific  and 
abundant.  Thus  we  see  the  Christian  Church,  at  the  very  outset  of 
its  career,  taking  on  a  governmental  as  well  as  a  domestic  form ;  Ave 
see  it  meeting  in  council  at  Jerusalem,  in  order  to  consider  and  deter- 


118  THE  CHURCH  as  a  divine  kingdom. 

mine  doubtful  questions ;  we  see  it  in  several  ways  exercising  adminis- 
trative authority,  enacting  laws  and  rules  for  the  guidance  of  disciples, 
and  assuming  executive  control  over  the  movements  of  those  who  were 
going  forth  among  men  as  its  representatives.  The  Book  of  Acts  is  a 
record  of  spiritual  administration  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  as  well 
as  of  personal  activity  on  the  part  of  the  apostles  and  their  associates. 
At  a  later  stage,  Ave  find  Paul  not  merely  inculcating  the  principles  by 
which  judicial  administration  should  be  controlled,  but  also  command- 
ing the  church  at  Corinth  to  exercise  discipline,  and  himself  assisting 
it  in  such  exercise ;  1  Cor.  5  and  6  :  2  Cor.  2  seq.  Both  James  and 
Peter,  John  and  Jude,  in  various  passages  affirm  the  right  of  the 
Church  to  protect  itself  against  the  unworthy,  even  by  disciplinary 
processes.  Not  only  were  saints  to  separate  themselves  from  the  evil; 
they  were  also  authoritatively  to  separate  the  evil  from  them — to  jHirify 
the  body  of  Christ  even  by  the  expulsion  of  vicious  or  heretical  mem- 
bers. Government  is  also  indicated  as  a  right  inherent  in  the  Church, 
by  the  numerous  injunctions  in  the  apostolic  writings  with  regard  to 
church  Avork — injunctions  which  could  not  well  be  carried  into  effect 
without  such  government  as  a  bond  of  organization,  and  as  an  essential 
condition  of  efficiency  in  service. 

Two  mistakes  are  to  be  guarded  against,  at  this  point.  The  first  is 
the  error  of  indifference  to  government, — an  indifference  too  often  ex- 
hibited in  disastrous  forms,  especially  in  Protestant  communions.  One 
of  these  forms  appears  in  the  prevalent  disregard  for  church  disci- 
pline, with  its  natural  consequence  in  the  weakening  and  corrupting 
of  the  household  of  faith.  Another  is  seen  in  that  spirit  of  individ- 
ualism, which  is  habitually  regardless  of  prescribed  modes  of  activity 
or  service,  and  which  refuses  oa  the  slightest  grounds  to  submit  to 
legitimate  regulation  and  restraint.  The  second  error  appears  in  the 
assumption,  so  often  at  least  implied,  that  government  is  an  end  in 
itself,  rather  than  a  divine  means  to  the  better  accomplishment  of 
other  and  higher  ends.  Thus  in  the  papal  view  the  Church  is  often 
regarded  as  existing  for  the  sake  of  government — rather  than  govern- 
ment as  an  instrument  employed  by  and  for  the  Church.  The  natural 
relations  are  thus  subverted,  and  what  was  divinely  appointed  as  a 
blessing,  is  changed  into  an  agent  of  tyrannical  usurpation. 

IV.  Varieties  IN  Church  Government  :  Diverse  Polities.— At 
this  point  we  are  confronted  by  the  fact  that,  while  church  govern- 
ment is  thus  clearly  warranted  by  Scripture,  and  while  the  main  prin- 
ciples in  government  and  the  general  rules  for  construction  are  so 
definitely  laid  down  by  our  Lord,  and  so  corroborated  by  both  the 
teaching  and  the  example  of  His  Apostles,  such  government  exists 
in  the  world  in  very  wide  and  even  antagonistic  varieties.     We  are 


VARIETIES   IX   CHURCH   GOVERNMENT.  119 

confronted  by  the  further  foot,  that  each  of  these  varieties  has  claimed 
and  is  still  claiming  for  itself  special  and  even  exclusive  biblical  war- 
rant: and  that  the  struggle  between  these  antagonistic  types  on  this 
ground,  has  been  and  still  is  one  of  the  most  prolific  sources  of  conflict, 
schism,  disaster,  to  the  common  Christianity.  The  question  whether 
such  a  state  of  rupture  is  ever  to  be  brought  to  an  end — whether  the 
divided  and  contesting  organizations  of  Christendom,  are  ever  to  be 
harmonized  and  unified  around  this  issue  of  government,  is  also  one 
which  forces  itself,  in  many  ways,  upon  the  attention  of  those  who 
believe  at  heart  in  the  one,  holy,  catholic  and  apostolical  Church  of 
the  Nicene  Creed. 

It  would  be  a  shallow  and  unjust  view  to  attribute  these  diversities 
wholly  to  evil  causes,  such  as  the  ignorance  or  weakness  or  wickedness 
of  men.     Every  student  of  ecclesiastical  history  indeed  knows  how 
large  a  part  human  ambitions,  human  jealousies,  human  selfishness  and 
sin,  have  played  in  the  development  of  these  diverse  polities  within 
the  one  Church  of  Christ  on  earth.     Protestants  point  to  the  shameful 
career  of  the  Papacy  at  various  stages,  as  an  illustration  of  this  gen- 
eral fact ;  and  the  adherents  of  the  primacy  of  Peter  in  turn  point  for 
like  illustration  to  the  conflicts,  the  disruptions,  the  persistent  antag- 
onisms, which  have  so  painfully  iippeared  in  the  history  of  Protestant- 
ism since   the  Keformation.     But   no  great  and  permanent  type  of 
Church  organization  can  justly  be  said  to  be  a  product  of  human  sin- 
fulness,  wholly  and  alone. — It   is  also  true  that  human   ignorance, 
showing  itself  in  the  entire  failure  to  see,  or  in  the  partial  or  distorted 
view  of,  what  the  Scriptures  clearly  reveal  on  this  grave  question,  has 
had  much  to  do,  if  not  with  the  formation  of  these  diverse  polities, 
still  with  their  development  and  application.    Passing  beyond  what  the 
Bible  has  plainly  taught,  and  theorizing  for  themselves  on  what  they 
suppose  to  be  scriptural  indications,  men  have  often  gone  widely,  dis- 
astrously astray,  even  where  the  desire  and  the  purpose  were  not  un- 
worthy.    Human   weakness,  likewise,  as  well  as  human  ignorance, 
has  had  at  times  much  to  do  with  these  ecclesiastical  growths:    it 
has  yielded  too  often  where  resistance  Avas  needful :  it  has  too  often 
suffered  human  ambition,  or  a  misguided  zeal,  to  introduce  what  stronger 
convictions,  firmer  religious  principle,  would  have  constrained  it  to 
resist. 

Yet  broader  and  higher  causes  must  be  recognized  in  conjunction  with 
these,  in  order  to  the  adequate  explanation  of  these  remarkable  diver- 
sities. Some  of  these  causes  are  natural,  social,  political.  There  are 
men,  for  illustration,  whose  mental  tendencies  incline  them  strongly 
toward  a  monarchal,  or  toward  a  democratic  form  of  government,  first 
in  the  state  and  then  in  the  church ;  and   whose  preferences,  readily 


120  THE   CHURCH   AS   A   DIVINE    KINGDOM. 

seizing  ui^on  Avhatcvcr  biblical  material  may  be  found  to  justify  these 
natural  tcndeuoics,  lead  them  to  frame  church  constitutions  and  regu- 
lations according  to  such  jicrsonal  predilections.  There  arc  also  social 
influences  and  usages,  as  seen  in  the  general  arrangements  of  society, 
which  jjredisposc  men  toward  corresponding  arrangements,  so  far  as 
the  Scripture  permits,  within  the  household  and  kingdom  of  grace. 
Especially  is  it  true  that  political  principles  and  institutions, — the  forms 
of  civil  government,  the  theory  and  jn-actice  of  legal  administration, 
the  varieties  of  public  oflice  and  station — have  had  much  to  do  with 
a  corresponding  construction  of  the  Church.  That  the  lioman  State, 
for  example,  Avith  its  multiplied  officials,  its  elaborate  rulings,  its  legal 
pomp  and  domination,  allected  largely  the  shaping  of  the  Church 
long  before  Leo  I.  became  the  imperial  Pope  of  Rome,  and  still  more 
decisively  fj-om  the  date  of  his  accession  down  to  the  Reformation,  is 
a  fact  too  obvious  to  be  questioned.  The  general  rule  which  ecclesi- 
astical history  at  many  points  suggests,  is  that,  wherever  monarchy 
pi'cvails  in  the  state,  a  monarchal  development  appears  in  the  Church, 
and  wherever  a  democracy  exists,  the  Church  tends  to  become  demo- 
cratic. Is  it  not  just  to  recognize  deeper  causes  of  this  class  as  con- 
spiring Avith  human  ignorance,  weakness,  sin,  in  producing  the  varieties 
of  government  we  are  contemplating? 

Is  it  not  possible  also,  that  some  reasons  for  such  variety  may  be 
found  in  the  Scripture  itself,  and  in  the  nature  of  Chi'istianity,  viewed 
as  a  free  and  expansive  faith,  having  the  world  as  its  area,  and  des- 
tined to  include  all  classes  and  degrees  of  humanity  within  its  govern- 
mental control?  In  one  aspect,  Christianity  is  obviously  a  monarchal 
system — a  purely  royal  religion  ;  in  another  it  is  essentially  democratic 
— a  spiritual  republic.  But  the  kingship  of  Christ,  and  the  brother- 
hood of  believers,  are  to  some  extent  antithetic  i)rinciples;  and  their 
practical  a})i)lication,  as  regulative  guides  in  ecclesiastical  construction, 
may  result  in  either  a  monarchy  or  a  republic,  or  in  a  blending  of 
both  in  varying  proportions.  Moreover,  the  Hebraic  Church,  though 
it  was  the  natural  model  of  the  Christian,  and  though  it  gave  definite 
form  to  the  earlier  Jewish  churches  at  the  outset,  could  not  well  have 
been  carried  in  its  original  type,  and  with  its  marked  Jewish  features, 
into  Gentile  countries,  and  made  tlie  autlioritative  norm  of  the  numer- 
ous churches  springing  up  in  AVestcrn  Asia  and  Eastern  Europe,  in 
states  of  society  wholly  unlike  that  in  which  it  originated.  It  is  at 
least  certain  that  such  a  process  could  not  have  been  carried  on,  with- 
out either  a  direct  and  positive  command  from  our  Lord  Himself,  or 
the  inspired  and  authoritative  Avord  of  His  apostles.  But  no  such 
command  or  AVord,  clear,  imperative,  sovereign,  appears  in  the  New 
Testament.     As  has  been  intimated  already,  our  Lord  seems  to  have 


THE   PAPAL   rOIJTY:    POSITION  AND    CLAIM.  121 

left  the  matter  of  organization  very  nuicii  in  abeyance.  Neither  have 
the  aj)ostles  so  fully  defined  their  concei)ti()n,  as  to  make  imi)erative 
one  unvarying  and  fully  authoritative  mode  of  construction  for  all  lands 
and  times.  Are  wc  not  therefore  justified  in  the  general  conclusion, 
that  as  in  the  mode  of  baptism,  and  in  some  other  particulars,  some 
variety  of  usage  existed  under  the  apostolic  warrant,  and  is  therefore 
still  admissible  under  the  authority  of  the  common  Gospel?  And 
would  it  not  be  a  vast  advance  toward  the  peaceful  settlement  of  many 
controverted  questions  in  church  polity,  if  such  a  measure  of  freedom 
were  recognized  as  vested  in  each  and  every  church,  under  the  supreme 
action  of  those  general  principles  of  organization  which  are  plainly 
stated  in  the  revealed  Word? 

Without  discussing  the  questions  thus  raised,  or  attempting  any  full 
solution  of  this  difficult  problem  of  diversity,  we  may  pass  on  to  a  very 
brief  consideration  of  the  particular  varieties  of  polity  exhibited  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church.  These  maybe  thrown  broadly  into 
two  general  classes:  government  by  the  priestly  orders,  government  by 
the  church.  (Government  by  the  priestly  orders  exists  in  two  leading 
varieties,  the  hierarchal  and  the  prelatic.  Government  by  the  church 
also  exists  in  two  leading  varieties,  the  democratic  and  the  rejjresenta- 
tive.  Four  distinct  conceptions  of  church  government  thus  make  their 
appearance  historically  in  Christendom,  though  rarely  without  some 
degree  of  admixture  with  antithetic  elements.  A  brief  glance  at  each 
of  these,  as  they  present  themselves  historically,  may  now  be  taken. 

V.  The  Papal  Polity  :  Its  Position  and  Claim. — This  hierarchal 
variety  of  government  by  the  priestly  orders,  as  distinguished  from  the 
body  of  believers,  may  be  briefly  described.  ^  It  maintains  in  general 
that  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth  was  intended  to  be  one  and  indivisi- 
ble,— a  visible  organization  having  a  recognized  center,  a  central 
power,  one  code  of  laws,  one  belief,  and  one  mode  of  worship.  It 
maintains  that  this  one  Catholic  Church  was  authoritatively  established 
by  Christ  and  His  apostles,  has  survived  and  flourished  from  the  apos- 
tolic age  down  to  our  own  time,  and  is  destined  thus  to  live  and  pros- 
per till  all  oppositions  are  overthrown,  and  the  Christian  world  is 
brought  into  tributary  allegiance.  It  maintains  that  Eome  is  the  di- 
vinely chosen  center  and  seat  of  this  Church ;  that  the  Pope  of  Rome 
is  its  proper  head  and  sovereign,  acting  as  vicegerent  of  Christ  on 
earth ;  that  it  is  given  to  him  to  determine  its  doctrine,  worship,  and 
laws,  and  that  obedience  is  to  be  paid  to  him  by  the  faithful  through- 
out the  world.     It  maintains  that  beneath  the  Pope,  in  whose  hands 

^The  following  Catholic  authorities  may  be  consulted:  Moehler,  on  Symbol- 
ism; Keniuck,  on  The  Primacy :  Dollingek,  The  Church  and  the  Churches.     Also 
Newman  and  Manning. 


122  TiiK  CHURCH  as  a  divine  kingdom. 

the  scepter  of  spiritual  sovereignty  is  thus  jilaced,  there  arc  inferior 
orders  and  ehisses  of  clergy,  existing  by  scriptural  warrant,  to  ulioin 
spiritual  grace  is  entrusted,  and  by  whom,  under  accountability  to  the 
supreme  pontitf,  the  Church  is  to  be  instructed  and  governed.  It 
maintains  that  the  government  of  the  Church  has  from  the  beginning 
been  vested  in  these  priestly  orders,  and  is  legitimately  ^Yieldcd  by 
them  ;  and  that  this  is  the  polity  directly  and  exclusively  prescribed  in 
the  AVord  of  God.  No  other  mode  of  government  has  any  scriptural 
basis  or  justification,  and  all  churches  organized  on  any  other  basis 
are  not  churches  in  the  biblical  sense,  but  are  schismatical,  revolution- 
ary, and  worthy  of  condemnation.  AVide  diversities  of  opinion  exist 
within  this  general  definition,  as  witb  reference  to  the  degree  of  au- 
thority vested  in  popes  and  councils  respectively,  and  the  rights  and 
prerogatives  of  inferior  and  superior  clergy.  But  all  agree  in  the 
fundamental  position,  that  government  as  to  spiritual  things  belongs, 
not  to  the  private  Christian,  or  to  the  particular  congregation,  but  to 
the  hierarchy,  and  in  the  last  resort  to  the  reigning  pontiff  sitting  as 
supreme  ruler  over  the  entire  household  and  kingdom  of  grace. 

The  arguments  advanced  in  support  of  this  theory  of  church  gov- 
ernment are  of  three  classes:  scriptural,  historical  and  philosophical. — 
The  scriptural  argument  starts  with  the  promise  of  the  primacy,  said 
to  be  found  in  John  1:  42,  as  explained  in  Matt.  16:  17-19,  and 
further  illusti'ated  in  Luke  22  :  31-32.  In  these  passages,  Ave  find,  it 
is  alleged,  a  marked  prominence  given  to  Peter  at  the  time  of  his 
selection  to  be  an  apostle  :  we  find  in  his  name  and  in  his  personal  de- 
claration of  faith,  evidence  that  in  his  own  person  as  a  believer  he  was 
to  be  the  rock  on  Avhich  the  Church  should  afterAvard  be  built :  we 
find  in  the  investiture  Avith  the  keys  of  church  authority,  an  indica- 
tion that  such  authority  Avas  to  be  entrusted  to  him  and  to  his  successors 
to  the  end  of  time :  Ave  find  in  the  further  commission  to  strengthen 
his  brethren,  direct  proof  that  he  AAas  to  be  set  above  them  as  their 
teacher  and  guide,  and  in  like  manner  Avas  to  be  ultimately  the  teacher 
and  guide  of  the  A^hole  Church.  The  promise  thus  gi\'en  AAas  verified, 
after  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  in  the  formal  appointment  of  Peter, 
John  21 :  15-17,  Avith  a  supreme  commission  to  feed,  protect  and  keep 
the  flock  of  Christ.  Corroborating  evidence  is  supposed  to  be  found 
in  the  general  place  held  by  Peter,  sometimes  AA'ith  James  and  John  as 
associates,  at  the  head  of  the  apostolic  circle.  The  actual  exercise  of 
this  primacy  began  at  once,  after  the  ascension,  as  is  CA'ident  in  the 
first,  and  the  succeeding  chapters  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles:  Acts  1 : 
15,  2:  14,  3:  1,  15:  7,  and  other  illustrations.  Further  evidence  as 
to  the  primacy  appears  in  Gal.  1:  18,  1  Peter  5:1:  and  in  verse  13, 
Avhere  Peter  speaks  as  bishop  of  the  Church  at  Rome,  the  mystical 


ARGUMENTS  FOR  THE  PAPACY.  123 

Babylon.  It  is  furtlier  alleged  that  these  evidences  that  Peter  was 
set  at  the  head  of  the  apostolic  group,  aud  was  made  the  central  per- 
sonage and  head  of  the  Church,  with  full  authority  to  wield  the  power 
of  the  keys,  and  to  transmit  that  power  at  his  decease  to  others,  are 
conclusive  as  to  the  intention  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church.  And 
further,  that  this  primacy  was  never  questioned  either  by  the  other 
apostles  or  by  the  primitive  Church,  but  remained  as  an  unchallenged 
institute  at  the  very  origin  of  Christianity,  and  became  a  law  of  con- 
struction by  which  the  Church  is  to  be  forever  bound.  In  further 
illustration,  it  is  said  that  the  Catholic  Church  folloAvs  exactly  the 
model  furnished  by  the  Jewish  Church; — that  the  pope  is  in  the  latter 
substantially  what  the  high  priest  was  in  the  former :  that  the  inferior 
clergy  correspond  with  the  IMosaic  orders  of  j^riest  and  Levite :  and 
that  the  authority  vested  in  the  clergy  under  the  Gospel,  is  essentially 
the  same  authority  which  was  exercised  by  the  Old  Testament  priest- 
hood. On  these  scriptural  grounds  it  is  maintained  that  the  Roman 
Catholic  is  the  only  truly  biblical  Church. 

The  historical  and  philosophical  arguments  adduced  in  support  of 
this  conclusion  may  be  briefly  summarized.  It  is  alleged,  that  the 
early  Fathers  iuteriireted  these  passages  concerning  the  promise  and 
institution  of  the  primacy  as  the  Church  of  Eome  now  interprets  them, 
and  that  Peter  was  always,  in  fact,  held  in  special  reverence  by  the 
primitive  Church  as  chief  among  the  Apostles: — that  reliable  tradition, 
as  well  as  the  reference  in  1  Peter  5:  13,  shows  the  apostle  to  have 
been  the  first  bishop  of  Rome : — that  the  Roman  see  was  regarded  on 
this  account,  even  from  the  first  century,  as  having  special  authority 
on  all  questions  of  faith  and  order : — that,  as  the  field  of  Christendom 
extended,  this  supremacy  was  more  and  more  freely  accorded,  until  we 
find  at  length  the  papal  authority  fully  and  freely  exercised  wherever 
the  Church  was  planted :  and  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Eastern 
and  of  the  Protestant  schism,  this  sway  has  actually  been  wielded,  by 
universal  consent,  from  the  earliest  centuries  down  to  our  own  time. 
Such  are  the  main  lines  of  historical  evidence  adduced. — The  philo- 
sophical argument  rests  chiefly  on  certain  considerations  relating  to 
the  historic  continuity,  to  the  compact  and  elaborate  adjustments,  to 
the  peculiar  solidarity,  and  to  the  efficiency  and  majestic  sway  of  the 
Papal  Church, — especially  as  noted  in  contrast  with  the  opposite 
weaknesses  alleged  to  exist  in  the  multiplied  and  antagonistic  forms 
of  Protestantism.  That  Church,  it  is  affirmed,  approaches  much  more 
nearly  than  these  Protestant  organizations  to  the  ideal  set  forth  in  the 
Bible,  and  corresponds  more  exactly  to  our  highest  dreams  as  to  the 
Church  of  the  future.  While  Protestantism  reveals  only  a  fragmentary 
and  desultory  life,  the  Church  of  Rome,  which  is  none  other  than  the 


124  THE   CHURCH   AS  A   DIVINE   KINGDOM. 

Church  Catholic  or  Universal,  reveals  a  degree  of  unity,  of  strength, 
of  capability,  which  on  philosophical  grounds  justifies  the  conclusion 
that  it  is  the  Churcli,  the  only  Church,  of  Christ  among  men.  It;; 
claim  to  universal  allegiance  is  therefore  unquestionable,  imperative, 
supreme:  all  refusal  to  yield  such  allegiance  is  schismatical  and  sinful, 
and  must  luring  the  soul  into  condemnation. 

VI.  The  Papal  Polity  Considered. — The  answer  of  evangelical 
Protestantism  to  these  claims  is  clear  and  strong.  Reverting  to  the 
scriptural  argument,  we  may  note,  first,  the  incorrect  interpretation  of 
the  crucial  passages  named,  with  reference  to  the  promise  of  the  j)ri- 
macy.  Thus,  when  Peter  was  styled  the  rock,  in  connection  Avith 
his  notable  confession,  our  Lord  clearly  referred  to  the  confession  itself, 
and  to  the  spirit  of  trust  which  led  to  it,  and  commended  these,  rather 
than  the  personality  of  Peter,  as  the  basis  on  Avhich  His  Church  was 
to  be  established.  He  praised  the  firmness,  the  endurance,  the  sublime 
confidence  shown  by  the  Apostle,  and  declared  that  all  acceptable 
belief  in  Him  must  exhibit  these  qualities.  This  is  illustrated  in  the 
place  given  to  such  loyal  confession  in  the  apostolic  letters:  Rom.  10: 
9-10,  EiDh.  2:  20,  1  Cor.  3:  10:  also  Acts  4:  10-12,  8:  37,  as  ex- 
amples. Again,  so  far  as  the  power  of  the  keys,  or  of  ecclesiastical 
authority,  is  concerned,  we  find  that  what  was  entrusted  to  Peter  in 
Matt.  16 :  19,  was  in  like  terms  entrusted  to  all  the  apostles  in  John 
20  ;  23,  and  to  the  Church  as  a  body,  INIatt.  18 :  18.  It  is  also  ob- 
vious that  the  other  apostles  were  shepherds  of  the  flock  as  truly  as 
Peter,  through  authority  derived  not  from  him,  but  directly  from 
Christ  himself:  Peter  recognizes  this  in  his  exhortation  to  all  elders  of 
the  Church,  whether  apostles  or  otherwise,  1  Peter  5:1.  Again,  his 
commission  to  strengthen  his  brethren,  after  he  had  passed  through  the 
painful  experiences  connected  with  his  denial  of  Christ,  is  nothing 
more  than  an  injunction  to  fraternal  fidelity,  such  as  frequently  appear 
in  more  general  form  in  the  Epistles.  Nor  can  anything  more  be 
made  of  the  prominence  assumed  by  Peter,  either  while  Christ  lived, 
or  afterward,  as  described  in  the  earlier  portions  of  the  Book  of  Acts, 
than  an  exhibition  of  those  qualities  of  temperament  and  age  which 
made  him  a  leader  in  the  apostolic  group  even  while  our  Lord  lived, — 
a  leadership  which,  however  conspicuous,  nowhere  presents  itself  in 
the  aspect  of  an  ofiicial  primacy. 

Very  much  may  be  quoted  from  the  New  Testament  in  direct  an- 
tagonism to  the  papal  claim.  Thus,  our  Lord,  on  various  occasions, 
plainly  discountenanced  the  idea  of  gradation  among  the  apostles 
(Mark  9  :  33-37),  and  rebuked  the  desire  for  eminence  which  He  dis- 
covered among  them:  Matt.  20:  20-27.  His  rebukes  to  Peter,  for 
his  inconsiderate  forwardness,  are  especially  frequent :  as  in  immediate 


ARGUMENTS   AGAINST   THE   PAPACY.  125 

conjunctiou  with  the  alleged  promise  of  the  priraac}',  Matt.  16:  23, 
and  again  in  connection  with  the  washing  of  the  feet  of  the  disciples, 
John  13  :  6-10,  and  again  Avith  the  rash  affirmation  of  fidelity,  just 
before  the  denial,  Luke  22 ;  31-34.  The  denial  itself,  as  faithfully- 
recorded  by  the  other  three  evangelists,  and  referred  to  by  John, 
stands  out  in  very  strange  contrast  with  the  papal  assumption ;  and 
the  relations  of  this  event  to  the  subsequent  history,  and  especially  to 
the  noted  interview  at  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  lead  us  to  a  very  different 
conclusion  from  that  which  Romanism  has  drawn  from  the  inspired 
narratives.  We  search  in  vain  through  the  records  of  the  Acts  for 
any  clear  sign  of  an  official  primacy,  either  claimed  by  Peter,  or  assigned 
to  him  by  either  the  apostles  or  the  Church.  His  place  in  the  events 
of  the  period  is  habitually  that  of  an  equal  among  equals:  while  ho 
leads  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  outside  of  the  circle  of  Judaism, 
he  shares  this  work  almost  from  the  first  with  Paul,  Avho  finally  becomes 
the  chief  apostle  to  the  Gentiles :  among  the  Jewish  churches,  he  in 
like  manner  shares  the  control  Avith  James,  and  indeed  with  the  apos- 
tles generally;  Acts  15:  22,  Gal.  1:  18-19.  We  should  also  note 
here  the  conflict  in  judgment  and  authority  between  Paul  and  Peter, 
recorded  in  Gal.  2  :  11-14:  and  in  which  Peter  was  to  be  blamed,  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  same  moral  weakness  which  had  appeared  so 
painfully  in  the  denial  itself.  Setting  all  these  glimpses  of  the  career 
of  the  apostle  over  against  those  quoted  in  proof  of  his  primacy,  we  can 
be  led  to  no  other  conclusion  than  that  this  alleged  primacy,  and  the 
vast  fabric  of  priestly  usurpation  which  has  been  built  upon  it,  arc 
without  adequate  warrant  in  the  Word  of  God. 

Protestantism  rejects  as  inadequate  both  the  biblical  and  the  tradi- 
tional evidence  with  regard  to  the  asserted  bishopric  of  Peter  at  Rome. 
Whether  the  obscure  passage,  1  Peter  5:  13,  refers  to  the  literal  Bab- 
ylon in  Chaldea,  or  to  Jerusalem  as  the  spiritual  Babylon,  or  to  some 
smaller  place  bearing  this  name,  or  to  Rome  itself  viewed  as  the  mys- 
tical Babylon,  it  affords  no  distinct  evidence  that  Peter  had  given  up 
his  apostolic  function,  and  assumed  that  of  a  Christian  bishoj^,  at  Rome 
or  elsewhere.  The  tradition  that  he  was  martyred  there  rests  on  foun- 
dations equally  slight.  Nor  is  the  testimony  of  the  Fathers  as  to  this 
point,  or  as  to  the  primacy  in  general,  or  to  the  apostolic  eminence  of 
Peter,  either  harmonious  in  itself,  or  in  the  aggregate  in  any  high  sense 
conclusive.  It  is  freely  admitted  that,  after  a  long  period  of  progres- 
sive departure  from  the  simplicity  of  the  primitive  era,  and  after  pro- 
tracted struggle  among  rival  bishops  claiming  supremacy  in  Christen- 
dom, Rome  Avon  the  victory,  and  became  and  remained  in  the  West, 
the  visible  center  and  seat  of  supreme  ecclesiastical  power.  But  this 
development,  as  Protestantism  maintains,  was  unscriptural,  abnormal, 


126  THE   CHURCH    AS   A   DIVINE   KIXGDOM. 

and  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  Christianity,  and  is  on  these 
grounds  to  be  rejected  as  illicit.  The  claim  of  Romanists  to  an  un- 
broken oneness  is  far  from  being  warranted  by  facta ;  both  the  violent 
separation  from  the  Eastern  Church,  the  revolutionary  schisms  within 
the  Papacy,  and  the  later  revolt  of  Protestantism,  disprove  the  claim. 
We  set  the  Ileformed  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  unity,  at  least  partially 
verified  among  the  Protestant  communions,  over  against  this  concep- 
tion of  uu  outward  organic  oneness,  and  claim  that  the  highest  illus- 
trations of  true  biblical  unity,  are  found  in  such  communions  even  in 
their  present  disparted  condition,  rather  than  within  the  fold  of 
Rome.  What  is  claimed  for  the  completeness  in  organization,  the  effi- 
ciency, the  power  and  majesty  of  the  Catholic  Church,  however  true, 
by  no  means  proves  that  the  polity  of  that  Church  is  either  scriptural 
or  on  philosophic  grounds  desirable.  Deeper  insight  leads  to  (|uite  the 
opposite  conclusion;  and  the  present  attitude  of  the  Papacy  toward 
personal  rights,  toward  civil  liberty,  toward  progress  in  thought  and  in 
spiritual  experience,  is  painful  evidence  against  both  the  polity  and  the 
priestly  despotism  planted  upon  it.  On  these  grounds,  evangelical 
Protestantism,  in  all  its  varieties,  rejects  the  hierarchy  as,  if  not  an 
unbiblical  excrescence  upon  Christianity,  still  a  type  of  government  in 
which  human  elements,  subtle  and  corrupting,  have  too  largely  per- 
verted an  institution  of  God  into  an  instrumentality  of  man.  While 
its  polity  is  not  the  woi'si  feature  in  the  Papal  communion,  that  polity, 
taking  away  from  the  iieo2:)le  their  prescriptive  rights,  and  setting 
up  instead  a  government  of  the  priesthood,  and  for  the  priesthood, 
must  ever  be  condemned  at  the  tribunal  of  a  free  and  spiritual  Chris- 
tianity. ^ 

'  The  question  whether  the  papal  polity  is  uiiscriptural,  sliould  never  be  con- 
founded with  the  broader  and  more  complicated  question,  whether  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  For  it  is 
conceivable  that  a  true  Church  may  be  organized  upon  a  false  ecclesiastical 
basis,  and  that  such  a  Church  may  retain  its  essential  faith,  its  spiritual  qiiality, 
even  though  it  be  iniquitously  governed.  It  is  conceivable  also  that  a  true 
Church  may  exist,  even  where  its  essential  faith  lias  been  overlaid  with  many 
human  accretions,  and  where  formalizing  tendencies,  corrupting  usages,  and  the 
like,  have  seriously  burdened  or  impaired  its  spiritual  life.  On  the  ground  of 
sucli  distinctions,  Protestant  writers  have  largely  abandoned  the  older  position, 
that  the  Church  of  Rome  is  a  synagogue  of  Satan — in  head  and  members  an  em- 
bodied Antichrist,  and  have  simply  condemned  the  papal  polity,  and  the  embod- 
ied papacy,  as  being  a  conspicuous  form  of  that  Antichrist  to  which  Paul  in  his 
letters  to  the  Thcssalonians  so  vividly  refers.  When  it  is  remembered  liow 
much  of  saving  truth  is  retained  in  tlie  Romish  conminnion,  and  what  measure 
of  religious  influence  that  communion  wields  in  the  world,  and  what  multitudes 
of  sincere  believers  are  embraced  within  it,  utter  condemnation  of  the  body, 
capitc  et  membris,  seems  a  serious  departure  from  the  crowning  law  of  Christian 
charity.  See  HoncE,  Ch.,  Theol.  Ill ;  822.  Church  PuHhj,  205-210.  Smith,  H.  B., 
Life;  appendix  A. 


PRELATIC   POLITY   DESCRIBED.  127 

VII.  The  Prelatic  Polity  :  Its  Claim  Outlined. — Viewing  Pre- 
latisni  in  general,  without  reference  to  specific  varieties  or  shadings,  we 
may  observe  tliat,  Avhile  it  rejects  the  Romish  conception  of  the  papacy 
as  unwarranted  by  Scripture,  and  injurious  to  the  Church,  it  still  retains 
in  substance  the  papal  view  as  to  the  inherent  right  of  the  clergy  to 
govern  the  household  of  faith.  It  harmonizes,  in  other  words,  with  tlie 
hierarchal  rather  than  w'ith  the  democratic  or  representative  theory  of 
government  of  the  Church,  by  and  for  the  Church.  It  holds,  with 
the  papist,  that  the  apostolate  was  designed  to  be  a  permanent  office, 
and  was  in  fact  perpetuated  from  the  apostolic  age,  under  the  title  of 
bishop,  and  wath  the  apostolic  functions  and  prerogatives  essentially 
embodied  in  it.  It  ckims  that  this  transmitted  oversight  and  control 
of  the  churches,  in  particular  districts  or  dioceses,  was  a  characteristic 
feature  in  church  management  from  the  beginning,  and  that  it  stands 
forth,  under  direct  apostolic  sanction,  as  the  only  authorized  mode  of 
ecclesiastical  administration,  for  all  succeeding  times.  It  also  joins 
substantially  with  the  papist  in  affirming  the  existence,  by  scriptural 
warrant,  of  two  subordinate  orders  of  clergy,  priests  and  deacons,  to 
whom  certain  powers  and  duties  are  assigned,  and  who  possess,  under 
the  episcopal  jurisdiction,  the  right  to  share  in  church  government. 
With  the  papacy,  it  maintains  further  that  these  three  orders,  existing 
by  divine  right  as  revealed  in  the  Bible,  are  essential  to  the  proper 
constitution  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  consequently  that  no  relig- 
ious organization  can  be  regarded  as  a  church  in  the  full  sense,  unless 
it  is  thus  constituted.  In  some  of  its  varieties,  Prelatism  admits  that 
certain  prerogatives,  such  as  the  choice  of  those  who  may  hold  position 
in  the  particular  church,  are  properly  vested  in  the  laity  :  but  as  a 
rule,  it  reserves  the  function  of  government  essentially  to  the  clergy, 
as  of  divine  right,  independently  of  the  people.  In  some  varieties,  it 
also  admits  the  right  of  the  laity  to  a  voice  in  respect  to  church  doc- 
trine and  canon,  and  to  general  administration,  but  still  strenuously 
exalts  the  clergy  into  special  prominence  as  an  independent  order,  with 
a  threefold  classification,  with  prescriptive  rights  and  a  special  investi- 
ture of  dignities,  not  accorded  to  them  by  the  people,  but  conferred 
on  them  in  the  New  Testament,  and  by  apostolic  decision  and  prece- 
dent. In  some  varieties  of  prelatic  polity  these  claims  as  to  those 
holding  the  office  of  bishop  are  greatly  modified,  and  that  office  is 
viewed  as  little  more  than  a  judicious  mode  of  oversight  and  adminis- 
tration,— the  authority  reverting  chiefly  to  the  two  remaining  orders, 
or  to  the  body  of  believers. 

Prelatism,  as  thus  outlined,  claims  for  itself  a  distinct  biblical  and 
historical  warrant.  This  warrant  is  derived  partly  from  the  analogy 
of  the  Mosaic  priesthood,  with  its  three  distinctive  classes,  severally 


128  THE   CllUnClI    as   a    DIVIXE    KIX(iDOM. 

invested  by  divine  appointment  witli  certain  inherent  rights  and  pre- 
rogatives.    It  is  held  that  this  arrangement  was   intended  to  typify 
and  introduce  the  form  of  government,  which  God  designed  to  estab- 
lish in  the  Christian  Church.     It  is  held  also  that,  when  Christ  organ- 
ized that  Church  during  His  own  life,  the  three  orders  were  preserved 
by  Him,  He  being  Himself  the  great  High  Priest,  while  the  apostles 
and  the  seventy  corresjDouded  to  the  priests  and  the  Levites  respect- 
ively.    It  is  further   held  that,  when  our  Lord  ascended.  He  made 
provision  for  a  continued  triplicity  by  the  advancement  of  the  second 
and  third  classes  to  fill  the  vacancies  made  by  His  departure,  and  by 
the  appointment  of  the  diaconate  as  a  third  body  of  subordinate  clergy. 
And  as  the  apostles  thus  became  primates  in  the  Church,  vested  with 
peculiar  jurisdiction  and  oversight  in  the  place  of  the  Master  Himself, 
they  were  authorized  to  fill  vacancies  in  their  own  number,  or  to  in- 
crease that  number,  as  occasion  should  arise.     As  Paul  was  supernat- 
urally    commissioned,   and   as    Matthias   was  supernaturally  selected 
under  apostolic  direction,  to  serve  in  this  bishoi^ric,  so  Timothy  and 
Titus  and  others  were  chosen  and  set  apart  by  the  apostles  themselves 
for  like  service;  and  thus  abundant  provision  was  made  for  the  pre- 
servation of  this  apostolic  office  in  the  Church  to  the  end  of  time.     It 
is  maintained   that  such  preservation  has  in  fact  occurred,  and  that 
bishops  as  a  class,  separated  by  certain  vested  peculiarities  from   all 
other  ministers,  and  empowered  supremely  to  rule  within  and  over  the 
Church,  are  an  essential  requisite  to  a  scriptural  organization  of  the 
body  of  Christ.     It  is  held  also  that  this  interpretation  of  Scripture  was 
generally  accepted  and  endorsed  by  the  early  Fathers :  and  that,  as  the 
primitive  Church  took  on  maturer  form,  the  episcopate,  if  not  at  first 
universally  established,  came  to  be  the  universal  feature  of  organized 
Christianity.     Both  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Church,  it  is  alleged, 
wei'e  thus  prelatic  in  structure,  long  before  the  struggle  among  lead- 
ing bishops — the  metropolitans  and  archbishops  and  patriarchs,  each 
jealous   for  his  own  dignities — eventuated  in   the  supremacy  of  the 
papacy  at  Rome.     It  is  maintained  that  the  institution  of  the  papacy, 
being  a  departure  from  the  scriptural  model,  did  not  annul  the  ante- 
cedent episcopacy,  and  that  the   latter,   being  faithfidly  transmitted 
from  century  to  century,  remained,  and  continues  to  be,  the  authorized 
mode  of  polity  for  the  Church  throughout  the  world.     By  some  advo- 
cates, it  is  admitted  that  the  distinction  between  bishops  and  presby- 
ters, or  the  ordinary  clergy,  did  not  exist  at  first,  and  was  not  universal 
during  the  apostolic  age,  but  gradually  came  into  existence  as  an  au- 
thoritative development  from  the  biblical  germ.     It  is  admitted  by 
others  that  no  such  distinction  exists  now,  in  the  nature  of  the  office; 
and  that  the  administration  of  government  by  bishops  is  in  large  de- 


PRELATISM  EXAMINED.  129 

grec  a  provisional  arrangement  for  the  better  guidance  and  control  of 
the  Church,  and  is  therefore  prelatic  ia  form,  but  representative  and 
democratic  in  substance.  ^  On  the  latter  basis,  this  polity  is  strongly 
defended  on  philosophic  grounds,  as  furnishing  a  wise  and  just  and  ef- 
fective form  of  government, — one  Avhich  protects  the  Church  against 
the  agitations  and  disruptions  to  which  bodies  not  thus  organized  are 
subject, — one  which  harmonizes  Avell  with  the  best  existing  varieties 
of  civil  rule,  and  which  naturally  attracts  to  itself  the  finest  elements 
in  society,  and  is  in  close  affinity  with  the  highest  types  of  Christian 
civilization. 

VIII.  Prelatism  Examined. — With  the  modified  forms  of  the 
prelatic  polity  just  described,  no  broad  scriptural  or  historical  issue  is 
requisite.  It  is  the  Prelatism  which  allies  itself  with  the  Papacy  and 
with  oriental  Christianity,  in  holding  that  goverment  is  a  function  of 

'The  fiction  of  a  direct  apostolical  succession,  verified  by  historic  records, 
with  no  gap  at  any  point,  is  now  abandoned  by  most  Anglican  authorities, 
though  long  maintained  as  the  only  ground  on  which  the  prelatic  polity  can 
stand.  More  moderate  advocates  liold  that  such  a  demonstrated  transmission  is 
not  essential :  that  the  episcopal  office  justifies  itself  rather  on  general  grounds 
as  an  ancient  and  biblical  institution  :  that  it  has  been  widely  and  happily  rec- 
ognized during  the  progress  of  Christianity:  and  that,  although  the  polity 
based  upon  it  may  not  be  the  only  one  authorized  in  Scripture,  it  is  still  the 
polity  best  adapted  to  secure  the  interests  and  advancement  of  the  Church.  It 
is  admitted  by  most  authorities  of  this  class  that  there  was  originallj'  no  distinc- 
tion in  office  indicated  by  tlie  terms,  bishoji  and  i^resbyter,  and  that  the  distinc- 
tion which  appeared  later  was  rather  an  outgrowth  of  experience,  than  the  car- 
rying out  of  a  strict  biblical  injunction  :  Lightfoot,  Camnientary  on  PhUipplans: 
Essay  on  the  Cliristian  Ministry.  Stanley,  Christian  lustihitions :  Chap.  x. 
Essentially  tlie  same  general  view  is  advocated  by  Jacob,  Eccl.  Polity  of  the  New 
Test:  and  Hatch,  Orjanization  of  the  Early  Christian  Churches.  This  is  a  signifi- 
cant departure  from  the  Romish  and  the  Oriental  dogma,  which  maintains,  not 
only  the  original  distinction  in  office,  but  also  the  historic  transmission,  the 
transfusion  of  apostolic  grace,  and  the  original  and  supreme  jurisdiction,  as  es- 
sential features  of  tlie  episcopate.  The  Church  is  in  the  Bishop,  is  the  apothegm 
of  Cyprian,  and  substantially  this  is  the  doctrine  of  the  hierarchal  school  gen- 
erally. On  this  basis  the  ordination  of  ministers  otherwise  than  through  the 
bishop,  is  invalid,  and  persons  so  ordained  have  no  jjroper  claim  to  the  minis- 
terial office  in  any  grade,  neither  can  any  church  constituted  in  any  other  way 
be  a  true  Cliurch  of  Christ :  Palmer,  Church  of  Christ,  Part  vi:  The  Episcopate. 
Lytton,  Church  of  Christ :  Origin  of  tlie  Ministerial  Function.  Blunt,  Diet,  of 
Doct.  and  Hist.  Theol:  art.  Apostolical  Succe!<sion,  and  others.  In  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  communions,  the  office  is  regarded  as  neither  hierarchal  nor  in  a 
strict  sense  diocesan,  but  rather  as  a  ministerial  function  or  mode  of  service, 
justified  by  the  uses  it  subserves,  and  not  contrary  to  Scripture:  Pope,  Chrh- 
tian  Theolwjy:  Vol.  ill :  p.  358.  Such  is  essentially  the  position  of  .several. other 
Protestant  communions,  organized  more  or  less  fully  on  the  prelatic  basis.  The 
Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  for  illustration,  adheres  to  the  episcopate,  not  as 
an  institution  of  divine  right,  but  as  a  very  ancient  and  desirable  form  of  Church 
]>oIity:  see  Declaration  of  Principles. 


130  Tin:  CHURCH  as  a  divini:  kingdom. 

the  clergy  rather  than  a  prerogative  of  tlie  peo})k\ — which  chiims  that 
the  episcopate  is  the  only  form  of  pohty  revealed  in  the  Bible,  and  is 
the  only  legitimate  basis  of  Cluirch  organization, — which  regards  all 
ordinatio!!  other  than  episcopal  as  invalid,  and  pronounces  .schi.smatical 
and  sectarian  all  other  varieties  of  administration,  against  which  on 
many  grounds,  biblical  and  otherwise,  earnest  protest  must  be  made  by 
the  adherents  of  free,  po2)ular,  eficctive  Christianity. 

While  it  is  admitted  that  the  Jewish  Church  stood  forth  everywhere 
within  the  bounds  of  Judaism  as  the  natural  norm  of  the  new  Church 
to  be  organized  in  Christ,  we  find  no  suggestion  in  Scripture  of  any 
such  close  imitation  of  the  offices  and  methods  of  the  former,  as  is 
implied  in  the  parallel  on  which  Prelacy  so  largely  rests  its  claim, 
Christ  was  to  be,  not  merely  during  His  earthly  life,  but  perpetually, 
the  Head  of  His  Church  ;  nor  have  we  any  evidence  in  His  own 
words  that  He  intended  at  His  decease  to  set  up  a  body  of  repre- 
sentative men,  Avho  should  be  authorized  to  act  henceforth  as  His 
vicars  on  earth,  above  and  over  His  Church.  If  there  were  any  such 
evidence,  it  would  be  an  inevitable  conclusion  from  it,  that  He  who 
had  chosen  the  twelve  to  this  distinction,  had  also  chosen  one  among 
the  twelve  to  be  their  ruler — the  high  priest  and  vicegerent  of  the 
whole  Church  in  His  stead.  Neither  is  there  any  proof  of  a  transfu- 
sion of  apostolic  grace,  or  of  a  supernatural  investiture  of  jiriestly 
dignities,  which  were  in  turn,  by  a  process  quite  outside  of  the  Church 
as  an  organism,  to  be  transmitted  to  certain  chosen  successors,  and  by 
them  to  others,  who  were  to  be  high  priests  and  apostles  at  once  to 
the  Church  for  all  coming  time.  The  biblical  proof  that  such  trans- 
mission actually  occurred,  as  in  the  case  of  Timothy  and  Titus,  and 
others  who  are  called  apostles  or  bishops  or  overseers,  is  wholly  inade- 
quate. The  apostolate  of  Paul,  and  that  of  Matthias — if  he  actually 
filled  the  apostolic  office — supjjly  no  projier  parallel.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  Timothy  ever  resided  permanently  at  Ephcsus,  where  he  is 
presumed  to  have  been  bishop :  he  apjiears  far  more  often  in  other 
places  and  relations:  Acts  17:  15,  18  :  5,  19:  22,  20:  4,  in  connection 
with  1  Tim.  1:  3,  2  Tim.  4:  9,  13.  In  respect  to  Titus,  asserted  to  be 
first  bishop  of  Crete,  a  similar  vmcertainty  exists:  Titus  3:  12.  As 
to  Barnabas,  styled  an  apostle,  in  Acts  14:  14  :  to  Epaphroditus  re- 
ferred to  in  Phil.  2 :  25 :  to  Silvanus,  associated  with  Paul  and  Timothy 
as  an  apostle,  in  1  Thess.  2:  G:  r.id  to  Andronicus  and  Junia,  or 
Junias,  called  apostles  in  Rom.  l(i:  7  :  or  to  the  angels,  or  apostles, 
of  the  seven  Asiatic  churches,  we  really  find  nothing  that  warrants  in 
any  high  degree  the  conclusion  that  any  one  of  these  persons  was 
ever  ordained  to  a  special  apostolic  service,  or  was  ever  recognized  by 
the  Church  as  a  legitimate  successor  of  the  original  TAvelve,     The 


OBJECTIONS   TO    STEICT   PEELATISM.  131 

special  function  of  the  original  group,  as  witnesses  to  the  great  facts 
of  the  Messiahship  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  an  untrausniissible 
function :  by  the  nature  of  the  case  these  later  converts  could  not  have 
discharged  it.  And  so  far  as  the  general  oversight  of  the  Church  was 
concerned,  we  have  on  the  one  side  no  clear  evidence  that  the  apostles 
were  one  and  all  bishops,  and  on  the  other  side  abundant  proof  that 
not  merely  the  jDcrsons  named,  but  others  also,  shared  with  the  twelve 
in  the  great  tiisk  of  organizing  and  governing  the  nascent  Church. 
In  this  work  the  bishop  and  the  presbyter  were  one  and  the  same ; 
and  as  bishops  or  presbyters,  the  apostles  stood  on  entire  equality  with 
their  official  brethren,  except  so  far  as  the  possession  of  supei'uatural 
charisms,  and  especially  the  gift  of  inspiration,  gave  them  peculiar, 
though  temporary  eminence.  In  the  New  Testament,  as  candid  and 
competent  scholarship  jiow  admits,  no  distinction  such  as  is  claimed  for 
prelacy,  appears  at  any  point.  It  is  needful  only  to  add  that  the 
inspired  record  of  the  institution  of  the  diaconate  conclusively  shows 
this  to  have  been  in  no  sense  a  priestly,  but  rather  an  administrative 
office,  such  as  a  layman  might  fill :  and  on  this  side  also,  the  dogma  of 
a  threefold  ministry  fails  to  justify  itself  at  the  bar  of  Scripture.  The 
analogy  sometimes  drawn  from  the  appointment  of  the  seventy  (Luke 
10:  1)  in  no  degree  justifies  the  counter  claim.  ^ 

It  is  freely  admitted  that  as  we  pass  beyond  the  apostolic  period, 
traces  of  defined  episcopacy  begin  to  make  their  appearance  :  that 
during  the  second  and  third  centuries  these  traces  still  increase  in 
number  and  prominence,  and  that  this  increase  continues  in  both  the 
East  and  the  West,  until  in  the  fifth  century  the  long  evolutionary 
process  culminates  in  the  patriarchate  at  Constantinople,  and  in  the 
papacy  at  Rome.  But  we  may  justly  ask  whether  this  was  a  legitimate 
and  healthful  outgrowth  from  the  germs  planted,  the  principles  pre- 
scribed, the  spirit  inculcated  by  our  Lord  and  registered  in  the  in- 
spired Word?  The  argument  for  the  prelacy,  like  that  for  the  pri- 
macy, fails  disastrously  at  this  point.  The  process  described  has  in  it 
too  many  human  elements,  is  too  much  a  growth  of  pride  and  ambi- 
tion rather  than  of  grace,  and  is  too  obviously  a  movement  away  from 
the  cardinal  law  of  Christian  equality,  and  from  the  doctrine  of  church 
right  and  church  power  laid  down  in  the  Epistles,  to  be  contemplated 
with  favor.  What  we  really  see  in  it  is  a  humauiziug  tendency — a- 
disposition  to  bring  the  Church  into  closer  affiliation  with  the  imperial 
Roman  state :  a  tendency  and  disposition  repressed  at  first  by  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ  and  the  apostles, — repressed  also  by  the  prevalent  spirit 
of  the  early  Christians,  by  the  outward  condition  of  the  Church,  and 

'For  a  full,  and  effective,  argument  on  these  biblical  questions,  see  Coleman, 
Manual  on  Prelacy  and  Ritualism:  Ch.  vr,  especially.  Also,  Barnes,  AjMstolic  Church. 


132  Tin:  CHURCH  as  a  divine  kingdom. 

by  the  i)ersecutions  often  raging;  but  at  length  breaking  forth,  es- 
pecially in  the  great  nuuiicipal  ceuterri,  and  affecting  more  and  more 
the  general  feeling,  until  it  reached  itrf  acme  at  last,  not  in  diocesan 
prelacy,  but  in  a  hierarchal  papacy,  wholly  at  variance  with  both  the 
letter  and  the  s[)int  of  the  New  Testament. 

Nor  is  the  historical  argument  for  prelacy  improved,  but  rather 
weakened,  by  every  further  trace  of  its  development,  down  through 
medieval  into  modern  life.  Even  where  the  prevalent  tendencies  in- 
spired by  the  Reformation,  and  native  to  the  mind  of  Northern  Eu- 
rope, have  kept  it  largely  in  check,  the  prelatic  spirit  has  not  justified 
itself  in  the  deepest  convictions  of  that  multitude  of  the  faithful  who, 
in  the  })linise  of  Savanarola,  constitute  the  true  Church.  Though  sus- 
tained by  state  authorities,  and  affiliating  by  a  natural  impulse  with 
the  monarchal  rather  than  the  democratic  principle,  it  can  not  be  said 
U)  have  held  its  own,  when  tried  at  the  bar  of  Christian  intelligence 
and  experience.  The  admissions  made  by  many  of  its  most  eminent 
advocates  as  to  its  lack  of  distinct  biblical  warrant,  are  suggestive  at 
this  point ;  and  their  general  plea  for  it  on  the  ground  of  its  benefi- 
cent working  and  influence  as  an  ancient  and  efficient  scheme  of  church 
organization,  is  one  which  requires  large  modification.  Yet  these  ob- 
jections are  not  to  be  urged  too  strongly,  in  view  of  all  that  a  mod- 
ified and  liberal  episcopacy,  sympathizing  spiritually  Avith  the  people, 
has  wrought — especially  in  English  history.  And  where  such  episcopacy 
is  regarded,  not  as  an  order  with  hierarchal  powers,  but  as  a  mode  of 
ecclesiastical  organization,  having  the  good  of  the  people  as  its  aim; 
and  where  the  propriety  of  other  modes  of  organization  are  admitted, 
and  other  Christian  communions  are  acknowledged  to  be  true  Churches 
of  Jesus  Christ,  opposition  to  this  system  may  well  yield  its  strenuous- 
ness,  and  may  even  be  changed  into  cordial  esteem, 

IX.  Independency:  Its  General  Position. — We  pass  at  this 
point  from  the  hierarchal  to  the  popular  type, — from  government  by 
the  clergy  in  their  own  right,  to  government  of  the  people,  by  and  for 
the  people.  And  as  in  the  former  type  two  varieties  appeared,  the 
papal  and  the  prelatic,  so  in  the  latter  we  find  two  distinct  varieties, 
the  democratic  and  the  representative.  It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that 
these  two  varieties  exist  always  in  jDure  or  unmixed  form  ;  they  are 
often  interblended  practically,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  as  to  their 
underlying  and  regulative  principles,  they  belong  to  one  and  the  same 
class.  Of  these  two  varieties,  we  may  consider  first  the  purely  demo- 
cratic, under  the  title  of  Independency.  ^ 

'Authorities  to  be  consulted  here:  Robinson,  J.,  Works;  Mathek,  C,  Ratio 
Disci'plhice,  and  MagnaUa;  Punchard,  View  of  ConfjregationaUsm ;  Dexter,  H.  M., 
Congregationalism ;  Hyde,  J.  T.,  New  Catechism,  42. 


THE   INDEPENDENT   POLITY   STATED.  133 

In  tills  form  of  polity,  the  autonomy  of  tlie  particular  church  or  con- 
gregation is  affirmed  as  the  fundamental  principle  in  church  govern- 
ment. It  maintains  that  only  true  believers,  Avith  their  families,  have 
any  right  to  a  place  in  the  household  of  faith :  and  that  this  divine 
household  is  fully  empowered  to  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  all  per- 
sons seeking  fellowship  with  it.  It  holds  that  every  company  of  be- 
lievers, in  such  number  as  can  conveniently  assemble  together,  and  are 
by  mutual  consent  organized  for  this  purpose,  is  an  independent  Church, 
vested  with  absolute  right  and  held  under  inalienable  obligation  to 
govern  itself,  under  a  supreme  responsibility  to  Christ  alone.  It  af- 
firms that  the  principles  to  be  regarded  in  such  government  are  fully 
laid  down  in  the  Scriptures;  that  the  interpretation  and  application  of 
these  principles  belong  to  the  particular  organization ;  and  that  in  the 
act  of  governing  itself  on  this  basis,  every  such  organization  is  to  be 
controlled  by  no  human  authority  outside  of  itself,  whether  ecclesias- 
tical or  political.  It  further  affirms  that  but  two  classes  of  officers  are 
described  in  the  Xew  Testament,  the  minister  and  the  deacon ;  it  re- 
gards the  diaconate  as  essentially  an  administrative  office,  concerned 
with  the  charities  and  external  interests  of  the  church  chiefly ;  it  re- 
pudiates the  doctrine  of  more  than  a  single  order  or  class  of  ministers, 
and  refuses  to  the  clergy  any  influence  or  control  in  government  beyond 
what  may  belong  to  them  as  members  in  the  particular  church.  In 
general,  it  defines  a  church  as  a  voluntary  association  of  persons  pro- 
fessing godliness,  and  bound  together  in  holy  covenant,  to  which  full 
ecclesiastical  power  is  directly  committed,  exclusive  of  all  foreign  juris- 
diction— an  organization  wholly  free  and  independent  in  itself. 

Such  was  the  original  doctrine  of  the  Brownist  or  strictly  Inde- 
pendent party  in  England  with  whom  this  type  of  polity,  in  its  modern 
form,  may  be  said  to  have  originated.  Two  important  modifications 
have  appeared  in  more  recent  times  :  the  first  recognizing  the  propriety 
of  committing  the  government  of  the  church,  in  part  at  least,  to  rep- 
resentative persons  chosen  from  the  body  for  this  purpose :  the  second, 
affirming  the  duty  of  fellowship  among  the  churches,  in  conjunction 
with  this  autonomy  of  the  particular  church.  The  worth  of  the  former 
modification  will  be  considered  in  another  connection.  To  the  latter, 
the  system  of  Congregationalism,  as  distinguished  from  strict  Inde- 
pendency, owes  its  origin.  The  fundamental  position  is  well  defined 
in  the  Cambridge  Platform :  Although  churches  be  distinct,  and  may 
not  be  confounded  one  with  another  ;  and  equal,  and  therefore  have 
not  dominion  one  over  another  ;  yet  all  churches  ought  to  preserve 
church  communion,  one  with  another,  because  they  are  all  united  unto 
Christ,  not  only  as  a  mystical,  but  as  a  political  Head,  whence  is  de- 
rived a  communion  suitable  thereto.     The  modes  in  which  this  correl- 


134  THE   CHURCH   AS   A   DIVINE   KINGDOM. 

ative  duty  of  fellowship  finds  expression,  arc  ecclesiastical  councils  for 
the  solution  of  specific  questions,  local  or  jirovincial  conferences  meet- 
ing statedly  for  the  consideration  of  common  interests,  and  general  or 
ecumenical  assemblages,  convened  for  the  contemplation  of  issues,  doc- 
trinal and  ecclesiastical,  in  which  all  the  churches  organized  on  this 
basis  are  alike  concerned.  The  action  of  such  associated  bodies  is  held 
to  be  strictly  advisory  or  declarative,  and  therefore  may  not  directly 
control  the  administration  of  any  particular  church :  still  the  important 
pi'inciple  is  here  admitted,  that  all  particular  churclics  are  in  fact  one 
Church,  because  they  are  sj)iritually  united  together' in  Christ,  as  their 
mystical  and  their  political  Head. 

This  variety  of  polity  claims  for  itself  a  definite,  if  not  an  exclusive, 
biblical  warrant.  The  Cambridge  Platform,  following  the  Brownist 
leading,  and  the  spirit  of  the  age,  declared  that  the  j^arts  of  church 
government  are  all  of  them  exactly  described  in  the  Word  of  God, 
andthat  it  is  not  the  province  of  man  to  add  or  diminish  or  alter  any- 
thing in  the  least  measure  therein.  The  Scriptural  argument  as  gen- 
erally presented,  may  be  condensed  in  the  following  propositions : 
that  the  matter,  or  material,  of  a  church  is  saints  only,  Rom.  1 :  7, 
1  Cor.  1 :  2,  Phil.  1 :  1-7 :  that  the  form  is  one  organized  body  politic, 
1  Cor.  12:  12,  20,  27,  Eph.  2:  20-22:  that  the  quantity  to  be  in- 
cluded is  as  many  as  can  meet  in  any  one  place,  Acts  2 :  1,  5  :  12,  14: 
27,  1  Coi*.  14 :  28 :  that  the  power  of  government  is  vested  wholly  in  the 
church  itself.  Matt.  18:  17-19,  1  Cor.  5:  4-7,  Rev.  2  and  3:  that  the 
only  officei'S  authorized  arc  ministers  and  deacons.  Acts  6 :  1-6,  15: 
23,  Phil.  1:  1,  Eph.  4:  11-12:  and  that  the  choice  of  officers  rests 
exclusively  with  the  church  itself,  Acts  1:  15-26,  6:  2-7,  14:  23,  and 
other  passages.  It  is  held  that  this  was  the  constitution  of  the  apostolic 
churches ;  that  the  term,  church,  is  nowhere  used  except  with  refer- 
ence to  the  single  congregation;  and  that  the  plural,  churches,  is  in- 
variably employed  to  describe  the  congregations  of  a*given  region.  It 
is  held  that  the  only  fellowship  recognized  among  these  churches  in  the 
apostolic  age,  was  by  advisory  councils  such  as  that  convened  at  Jeru- 
salem; and  that  these  councils  were  never  empowered  to  exercise 
formal  j  urisdiction  in  any  way  over  the  particular  household  of  faith. 
It  is  also  held  that,  in  the  earlier  history  of  Christianity,  after  the  apos- 
tolic century,  this  was  the  authorized  and  exclusive  mode  of  church 
organization:  and  that  the  later  modes,  as  the  episcopal  and  papal, 
were  unwarrantable  departures  from  the  scriptural  model,  in  the  in- 
terest of  human  pride  and  ambition.  Independency  thus  claims  his- 
toric as  well  as  biblical  warrant,  and  on  this  ground  asserts  its  right 
to  be  regarded  as  the  only  proper  mode  of  church  organization. 
Many  of  its  advocates  lay  great  stress  on  its  intrinsic  equity,  on  its 


IXDEPENDENCY   CONSIDERED.  135 

harmony  with  human  rights  and  with  free  and  just  government,  on  its 
influence  as  an  element  in  spiritual  culture,  and  on  its  efficiency  in 
producing  an  intelligent,  active,  earnest,  useful  church  life.  With  a 
large  proportion  of  its  adherents  in  our  time,  considerations  of  this 
class  have  greater  weight  than  the  biblical  argument  itself, — especially 
where  the  legitimacy  of  other  modes  is  admitted,  by  the  recognition 
of  churches  so  organized  as  being  true  parts  or  divisions  of  the  one 
Church  of  Christ. 

X.  The  Claims  of  Independency  Eeview^ed. — Many  of  the  gen- 
eral positions  hei-e  taken,  may  be  accepted  in  substance  by  those  who 
are  opposed  to  what  has  been  denominated  the  hierarchal  type  of  church 
government.  All  who  are  neither  papist  nor  prelatist,  agree  in  reject- 
ing the  fiction  of  the  three  orders,  and  in  maintaining  the  absolute 
parity  of  the  Christian  ministry.  They  agree  in  ascribing  to  the 
Church,  and  even  to  each  congregation,  the  right  to  govern  itself,  so 
far  as  this  is  set  over  against  the  assumed  right  of  the  clergy  to  govern, 
in  virtue  of  a  divine  appointment  and  independently  of  responsibility 
to  the  household  of  faith.  They  also  agree  in  affirming  the  duty  of 
every  member  in  that  household  to  share  either  personally  or  represen- 
tatively in  its  administration,  and  to  associate  himself  responsibly  with 
the  church  life  and  work.  In  a  word,  all  who  are  neither  papist  nor 
prelatist,  agree  substantially  in  regarding  the  Church  of  God  on 
earth,  not  as  an  empire  or  an  oligarchy,  but  rather  as  a  spiritual  de- 
mocracy,— a  holy  brotherhood  of  saints,  in  which  the  principle  of 
equality  is  the  fundamental  law,  and  in  which  those  who  rule,  in 
whatever  station,  are  still  the  servants  of  all,  in  the  name  of  Christ. 

Yet  most  who  hold  these  general  positions,  fail  to  find,  either  in 
history  or  in  Scripture,  sufficient  basis  for  the  claim  of  Independency 
in  the  exclusive  form  urged  by  many  of  its  adherents.  It  is  admitted 
that,  if  we  go  back  beyond  the  period  when  the  papacy  rose  into  su- 
premacy, or  the  earlier  period  when  episcopacy  was  the  prevalent  pol- 
ity, we  find  simpler  modes  of  church  organization  in  existence,  con- 
forming at  some  points  to  this  purely  democratic  conception.  It  may 
also  be  admitted  that,  especially  among  the  Gentile  congregations,  exact 
uniformity  did  not  prevail,  and  that  in  some  of  them  clear  approaches 
to  strict  democracy  are  apparent.  Some  of  the  allusions  in  the  Book 
of  Acts,  and  also  in  the  Epistles,  certainly  justify  this  admission.  But 
beyond  this  it  is  clearly  impossible  to  go.  The  presumption  that  a 
pure  democracy  was  at  once  established,  in  every  instance  where  a 
church  was  organized,  whether  on  Gentile  or  on  Jewish  soil — that  one 
uniform  mode  was  inflexibly  followed,  in  Avhatever  form  of  civil  society, 
and  without  regard  to  the  antecedent  experience  or  culture  of  those 
uniting  in  the  organization  ;  and  especially  that  a  type  of  government 


136  THE   CHURCH   AS  A   DIVINE   KINGDOM. 

\vhich  had  literally  no  representative,  or  even  suggestion  among  the 
civil  governments  then  existing,  and  which  neither  the  Jewish  believer 
trained  in  the  synagogue  system,  nor  the  Gentile  believer  disciplined 
under  the  inij)erial  sway  of  Rome,  could  possibly  have  comj)reliendcd 
at  the  outset,  was  invariably  instituted  wherever  Christianity  was 
carried,  is  certainly  one  wdiicli  it  is  difficult  for  any  mind  that  appre- 
ciates these  conditions  even  to  entertain.  To  assume  that  such  a  pure 
democracy  was  thus  everywhere  introduced,  and  enforced  as  the  fun- 
damental law  of  church  construction,  is  a  step  which  nothing  but  the 
clearest,  most  positive  and  unquestionable  affirmations  of  the  New 
Testament  could  warrant. 

More  specifically,  the  following  objections  to  the  claim  of  Independ- 
ency may  justly  be  urged:  First,  if  we  set  aside  so  much  of  the  biblical 
teaching  as  is  held  by  the  adherents  of  the  representative,  in  common 
with  the  adherents  of  this  democratic  theory,  the  remainder  is  found  to 
be  too  casual  and  too  slight  to  sustain  the  extensive  fabric  of  inferences 
based  upon  it.  The  assertion  of  the  Cambridge  Platform  as  to  the  fullness 
and  exactness  of  the  inspired  testimonies,  is  far  from  being  verified  by 
facts.  That  the  particular  churches  in  Jerusalem,  in  Antioch,  in  Eph- 
esus,  in  Rome,  and  wherever  else  the  Gospel  was  embraced,  were  in 
each  and  every  case  organized  on  this  purely  independent  basis,  with 
ministei'S  and  deacons  set  in  their  respective  places,  and  assigned  to  a 
specific  work  of  teaching  and  administration*  while  in  each  and  every 
case  the  church  literally  governed  itself,  without  exterior  counsel  or 
control  of  any  sort,  except  the  apostolic,  is  a  supposition  for  which, 
be  it  true  or  otherwise,  no  distinct  evidence  can  be  found  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  claim  is  at  the  best  inferential,  and  the  inference  is 
at  the  best  doubtful. — Secondly,  there  is  conveyed  in  this  theory  an 
inadequate  conception  of  the  true  province  and  worth  of  government, 
as  a  central  feature  in  all  church  organization.  That  the  apostles  refer 
(1  Cor.  12  :  28,  2  Peter  2:  10)  to  governments  as  among  the  charisms 
and  prerogatives  bestowed  on  the  primitive  Church, — that  the  function 
of  ruling  was  under  such  divine  guidance  entrusted  by  the  particular  con- 
gregation (Rom.  12 :  8,  Heb.  13 :  7)  to  certain  persons  among  its  mem- 
bers,— that  these  Avere  not  always  ministers  or  deacons,  but  in  some 
cases  at  least  (1  Tim.  5 :  17,  Heb.  13;  17),  w^ere  a  distinct  class  or  order 
of  church  servants,  and  that  this  representative  administration  occasion- 
ally, if  not  frequently,  took  the  place  of  that  exercised  democratically 
by  the  w'hole  body  of  believers  (Acts  20:  17,  22),  may  be  affirmed,  if 
not  positively,  still  at  least  with  considerable  basis  of  probability. 
What  is  said  also,  especially  in  the  Corinthian  Epistles,  respecting  the 
administration  of  discipline,  strongly  suggests  the  presence  of  an  ex- 


THE   REPRESENTATIVE   POLITY   DESCRIBED.  137 

ecutive  force,  composed  of  repi-esentative  persons,  and  adequate  to 
carry  into  effect  the  decisions  of  the  Christian  household. 

Thirdly,  strict  Independency  clearly  fails  to  give  just  prominence  to 
the  scriptural  doctiine  of  the  fellowship  of  the  churches,  and  the 
sacred  unity  of  all  in  the  one  great  Church  of  God  on  earth.  It  is 
a  strained  interpretation  of  the  use  of  the  singular  term,  church, 
which  leads  to  the  affirmation  that  the  disciples  at  Jerusalem,  at 
Antioch,  and  other  points  where  they  were  quite  certainly  counted  by 
hundreds  or  thousands,  were  in  every  case  compressed  within  one  and 
the  same  church  organization.  A  much  more  natural  inference  is 
that,  however  many  the  congregations  were,  they  were  united  together, 
by  some  species  of  confederation,  as  the  one  Church  of  Christ,  in  the 
several  cities  named.  What  current  Congregationalism  recognizes  in 
councils  and  conferences,  if  not  some  more  compact  and  effective  form 
of  fellowship,  doubtless  existed  in  the  apostolic  age,  both  within  and 
without  the  bounds  of  Palestine.  The  doctrine  of  the  essential  unity 
of  all  churches  in  the  One  Church,  with  all  its  vast  practical  sugges- 
tions and  consequences,  was  also  familiar  to  every  one  who  had  ever 
listened  to  the  Pauline  letters  to  the  Ej^hesian  and  Colossian  disciples : 
Eph.  1 :  22,  5 :  23,  Col.  1 :  18.  The  epistles  of  Peter  and  John  in- 
culcated the  same  vital  lesson :  they  taught  believers,  Jew  and  Gentile, 
their  essential  oneness  in  Christ,  and  on  that  foundation  urged  habit- 
ually the  duty  of  Christian  fellowship,  saiirt  Avith  saint,  and  church 
with  church.  Hardly  credible  is  it  that,  in  the  presence  of  such  teach- 
ing, a  strict  independency  or  even  a  form  of  association  merely  casual 
or  occasional,  should  have  come  to  be  the  accepted  and  the  uniform 
mode  of  organization  for  the  Household  of  Faith. 

XI.  The  Representative  Polity  Stated  and  Justified.  ^ — The 
remaining  species  of  polity  of  the  popular  or  democratic  tyjje,  bearing 
the  general  name  of  Presbyterianism,  but  existing  wherever  Protest- 
antism has  extended,  under  wide  varieties  in  both  title  and  construc- 
tion, agrees  in  principle  with  much  that  is  found  in  the  other  polities 
considered.  Historically  it  had  its  modern  genesis,  like  the  two  pre- 
ceding Protestant  varieties,  in  the  investigations  and  the  struggles  of 
the  Reformation.  While  all  the  reformers  were  agreed  in  rejecting 
the  papal  theory  and  practice,  they  still  were  unable  to  harmonize 
upon  one  adequate  substitute.  Some  among  them  went  back  to  the 
Fathers   of  the  second   and   third   centuries,   and   there   found   and 

'  Authorities  to  be  consulted  :  Presbyterian  Forms  of  Government,  British 
and  American:  Gillespie,  Aaron's  Rod  Blossom!  nr/ ;  Rutherford,  Peaceable  Plea 
for  PauVs  Preshytcri/ ;  Cuxxixgham,  Hist.  Theol.  Chaps,  ii:  xxvi;  Bannerman,  J., 
Church  of  Christ :  Part  iv ;  Miller,  S.,  Presbyterianism,  etc.;  Smyth,  T.,  Treatises 
on  Presbi/tcrianism. 


138  THE   CnURCII   AS   A    DIVINE   KINGDOM. 

ailoptcJ  the  scheme  of  dioccsau  Episcopacy,  ^vhilc  others,  going  back 
still  further  to  the  apostolic  age,  found  and  embraced  the  scheme  of 
absolute  Independency, — both  classes  claiming  scriptural  as  well  as  ec- 
clesiastical warrant  for  their  respective  j^ositions.     Prior  to  both  in  the 
order  of  time,  and  claiming  like  biblical  justification,  arose  the  Pres- 
byterian scheme  of  government,  both  in  the  particular  church  and 
among  the  churches,  through  a  system  of  representative  or  delegated 
authorities,  set  apart  specially  for  this  purpose.     This  form  of  polity 
agrees  with  Independency  in  maintaining  the  parity  of  the  ministry, 
and  in  denying  their  right  to  rule  over  the  church  without  its  consent; 
and  also  in  regarding  the  diaconate  as  an  administrative  and  charitable, 
rather  than  a  ministerial  or  judicial  office.     It  agrees  with  Congrega- 
tionalism in  affirming  the  proper  affiliation  of  contiguous  churches, 
and  the  importance  of  a  practical,  administrative  iellowship  among 
these  several  households  of  faith.     It  agrees  with  Prelacy  and  Papacy 
in  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  whole  Church  of  Christ 
on  earth,  but  rejects  entirely  the  papal  and  prelatic  explanations  and 
applications  of  this  doctrine.     It  affiliates  in  general  with  the  demo- 
cratic or  poj^ular,  rather  than  the  hierarchal  conception  of  the  Church, 
yet  emphasizes  the  kingly  authority  of  Christ  and  His  supreme  head- 
ship, and  exalts  the  ministry  to  a  special  place  of  honor  as  an  order 
within  the  Church,  and  as  being  eminently  His  representatives  in  all 
church  activities.      It  holds  to  the  separate  responsibility  and  even 
the  full  autonomy  of  the  particular  church,  but  maintains  the  right  of 
every  such  organization  to  govern  itself  through  elect  rejDresentatives, 
or  to  associate  itself  with  other  like  organizations  in  one  system  of  judi- 
cial and  general  administration,  adjusted  with  mutual  obligations  and 
mutual  rights,  for  the  better  securing  not  merely  of  justice  to  indi- 
viduals, but  also  of  the  highest  welfare  and  growth  of  all.     The  elder- 
ship, or  session,  and  the  higher  judicatories  thus  constituted,  are  not 
bodies  existing  in  any  sense  independently  of  the  Church,  and  having 
primary  or  independent  authority:  the  primary  source  of  authority  is 
always  the  Church,  and  it  is  the  Church  which  confers  jurisdiction  on 
the  official  representatives  collectively.     The  immediate  objects  sought 
in  the  creation  of  these  administrative  bodies,  beyond  the  expression 
of  the  general  princi])le  of  unity  among  the  churches  thus  affiliated, 
are  the  better  preservation  of  soundness  in  doctrine,  regularity  in  dis- 
cipline, and  purity  in  life,  through  such  mutual  counsel  and  assistance 
as  may  in  these  ways  be  secured.     The  more  general  objects  contem- 
plated are  the  promotion  of  knowledge  and  religion,  the  prevention 
of  infidelity,  error  and  immorality,  and  the  furtherance  of  all  great 
Christian  interests.     The  action  of  these  judicatories  is  ministerial  or 
declarative  only,  and  their  poAver  is  altogether  moral  or  spiritual. 


PRESBYTERIANISM   JUSTIFIED.  139 

Such  in  brief  are  the  essential  elements  of  the  reiDresentative  or  Pres- 
byterian polity.  And  for  the  system  thus  outlined  it  presents,  if  not 
as  to  minor  features,  which  are  largely  left  to  human  wisdom,  still  as 
to  essential  principles  and  general  construction,  ample  warrant  from 
the  Word  of  God.  ^ 

In  explaining  and  justifying  this  polity  on  scriptural  grounds,  noth- 
ing more  than  such  general  warrant  will  be  affirmed.  Pre.sbyterianism, 
jure  divbw — a  system  directly  prescribed  and  enjoined  as  to  details  in 
the  New  Testament — can  no  more  be  j^roven  than  a  jure  divino  Prelacy 
or  Independency.  The  attempt  to  find  in  the  Bible  a  full,  exact,  in- 
variable mode  of  government,  adjusted  to  the  needs  of  the  Church  in 
all  varieties  of  condition,  and  so  enjoined  upon  it  that  all  dejiartures 
or  deviations  become  unscriptural  and  schismatical,  has  often  been  made 
in  the  interest  of  each  of  the  three  Protestant  varieties  of  church 
polity,  but  has  always  been  made  in  vain.  And  well  will  it  be  for 
Protestantism,  if  it  surrenders  this  futile  effort  in  future  to  the  Papacy, 
and  plants  itself  on  the  broad  principle,  that  any  polity  is  legitimate, 
which  stands  substantially  on  biblical  foundations,  and  which  justifies 
itself  practically  in  the  judgment  and  experience  of  the  household  of 
faith.  That  the  Presbyterian  or  representative  polity  meets  these  tests 
in  a  high  degree,  and  in  the  aggregate  more  fully  than  any  other,  will 
be  apparent  from  the  following  considerations : 

1.  While  the  synagogue  system,  established  among  the  Jews  in  the 
age  of  Christ,  can  not  be  urged  by  either  Prelacy  or  Presbyterianism 
as  an  authoritative  model  for  the  Christian  Church,  it  still  is  reasonable 
to  presume  that  the  churches  formed  among  Jewish  converts  would 
spontaneously  assume  the  structure  of  the  synagogue,  and  would  cre- 
ate offices  which  would  be  parallel  to  those  found  wherever  a  Jewish 
congregation  was  organized.  That  a  body  of  official  persons  called 
elders,  and  elders  of  the  people,  and  charged  with  the  oversight  of  the 
spiritual  interests  of  the  synagogue,  existed  universally  in  the  age  of 
Christ;  and  that  both  He  and  his  disciples  were  familiar  with  this  ar- 

'  "Not  that  we  think  that  any  policie,  and  ane  ordour  in  ceremonies,  can  be 
appoynted  for  al  ages,  times  and  places :  for  as  ceremonies  sik  as  men  have  devised, 
ar  hot  temporall,  so  may  and  aucht  they  to  be  changed,  when  tliey  rather  foster 
superstition  then  that  they  cdifie  the  Kirk  using  the  same."  Scotch  Covf.,  Art.  xx. 

"  There  are  some  circumstances  concerning  the  worship  of  God,  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  common  to  human  actions  and  societies,  which  are  to  be 
ordered  by  the  light  of  nature  and  Christian  prudence,  according  to  the  general 
rules  of  tlie  Word,  which  are  always  to  be  observed."      West.  Covf.,  Chap.  i. 

"  We  believe  the  general  i)latform  of  our  government  to  be  agreeable  to  the 
sacred  Scriptures ,  but  we  do  not  believe  that  God  has  been  pleased  so  to  reveal 
and  enjoin  every  minute  circumstance  of  ecclesiastical  government  and  dis- 
cipline as  not  to  leave  room  for  orthodox  churches  of  Christ,  in  the.sc  minutiae, 
to  differ  with  charily  from  one  another."    Synod  of  N.  Y.  and  Phila.,  178G. 


140  THE   ClIUllClI    AS   A    DIVINE    KINGDOM. 

rangement,  and  recognized  its  historic  validity  and  its  religious  value, 
as  appears  from  various  refereuccs,  ■will  not  be  questioned.  It  would 
naturally  follow,  under  these  conditions,  that  the  Jewish  converts  at 
Jerusalem,  in  the  absence  of  any  divine  instructions  to  the  contrary, 
would  organize  themselves  into  what  may  be  termed  a  Christian  syn- 
agogue (James  2 :  2)  with  its  presbytery  or  central  group  of  elders,  to 
whom,  in  conjunction  with  the  apostles,  the  care  of  the  organization 
should  be  entrusted.  Such  a  process  would  not  transpire  immediately 
at  the  first  assembling  in  Jerusalem  after  the  ascension,  or  at  once  upon 
the  extraordinary  experiences  of  the  Pentecost,  but  at  the  first  mo- 
ment when  the  necessity  for  closer  organization  became  apjiarent.  And 
as  these  converts  met  originally  at  the  times  already  made  sacred  by 
religious  use,  and  as  their  worship  took  on  naturally  the  forms  and  the 
order  familiar  to  the  Hebrews,  so  it  may  be  inferred  that,  when  the 
moment  of  need  arrived,  they  appropriated  also  that  mode  of  organi- 
zation for  which  their  Hebrew  training  had  so  well  prejiared  them.^ 
The  form  of  the  special  account  given  of  the  institution  of  the  diacon- 
ate  (Acts  C)  implies  that  the  process  just  described  had  already  taken 
place,  and  that  the  diaconate  was  in  fact  an  added  office  rendered 
needful  by  the  unexampled  combination  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  within 
the  one  communion  of  saints. 

2.  Starting  with  this  Hebraic  germ  at  Jerusalem  and  elsewhere,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  apostles,  guided  by  such  venerated  usage 
rather  than  by  direct  commandment,  proceeded  to  ordain  them  elders 
in  every  city  (Titus  1:5),  and  in  every  church  (Acts  14:  23)  where 
like  antecedent  conditions  existed,  and  the  converts  were  chiefly  of 
Jewish  origin.  It  is  not  needful  to  suppose  that  exact,  unvarying 
uniformity  obtained  in  this  process, — especially  where  churches  were 
formed  largely  from  Gentile  converts,  to  whom  a  distinctively  Jewish 
usage  such  as  this  would  be  both  unfamiliar  and  unattractive.  A 
large  degree  of  freedom  developed  itself  also  in  respect  to  the  func- 
tions of  both  the  elder  and  the  deacon,  as  is  apparent  from  the  graphic 
sketches  of  both  by  Paul  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles.  The  Hebrew 
presbyter  thus  introduced  became,  by  a  natural  change  of  name,  the 
Gentile  bishop ;  and  in  many  cases  was  teacher  and  pastor  as  well  as 
overseer  of  the  church.      Thus  the  process  of  organizing  churches  on 

*  "It  is  likely  that  several  of  the  earliest  Christian  churches  were  converted 
synagogues,  which  became  Christian  churches  as  soon  as  the  members,  or  as  soon 
as-the  main  part  of  their  members,  acknowledged  Jesus  as  tlio  ]\Ie?siali. 
The  apostles  did  not  there  so  much  form  a  Christian  church,  as  make  an  existing 
congregation  Christian  by  introduchig  the  Christian  sacraments  and  worsliip, 
and  establishing  wliatever  regulations  were  necessary  for  the  newly  adopted 
faith,  leaving  the  machinery,  if  I  may  so  speak,  of  government  unchanged."— 
WuATELY,  Kingdom  of  Christ  Delineated,  p.  SI,  seq. 


THE   AEGUMENT   FOR   PKESBYTERIANISM.  141 

this  model  obviously  weut  on  from  year  to  year,  witli  local  variations, 
until  the  elder  or  bishop,  invested  with  the  right  to  govern  and  the 
function  of  teaching,  became  a  characteristic  official,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  numerous  references  in  the  Acts  and  Epistles,  in  almost 
every  region  where  the  Gospel  had  gained  foothold.  At  Lystra  and 
Iconiura  and  Antioch  (Acts  14:  21-23),  at  Ephesus  (Acts  20:  17, 
28),  at  Philippi  (Phil.  1:  1),  and  more  generally  (1  Peter  5:1,  James 
5:  14),  we  find  such  ordained  elders,  bishops,  overseers,  pastors,  sev- 
eral in  each  church  apparently,  engaged  in  teaching,  in  governing  and 
in  general  oversight,  under  what  had  become,  not  merely  a  venerable 
usage,  but  a  recognized  and  approved  law  of  organization  for  the 
body  of  Christ.  The  passage  (1  Tim.  5:  17),  quoted  to  show  that  a 
distinction  existed  from  the  first  between  ihe  teacher  and  the  ruler, 
really  exhibits  no  distinction  in  office,  but  simply  a  recognition  of  su- 
periority in  the  primary  function  of  instruction.  The  more  general 
references  bring  to  view  but  a  single  class,  bearing  these  names  indif- 
ferently, and  doubtless  varying  widely  in  the  scope  and  authoritative- 
ness  of  their  official  functions.  ^ 

3.  AVe  may  observe  a  like  growth  in  the  conception  of  government, 
as  a  distinct  characteristic  of  the  Church.  At  first  the  body  of  Christ 
appears  as  an  unorganized  company,  taking  on  gradually  the  form  of 
a  household,  and  then  the  structure  and  character  of  a  state,  with  a 
defined  constitution  and  laws,  and  controlled  by  recognized  authorities. 
As  the  necessity  for  government  became  evident,  government  itself 
appeared,  first  as  a  species  of  charism  (1  Cor.  12 :  28),  but  afterward 
more  generally,  as  an  ordinary  office :  Rom.  12:  8.  At  first  the  in- 
spired leaders  ruled  largely  in  virtue  of  their  inspiration ;  then  came 
the  charismatic  ruling ;  finally  each  church,  under  apostolic  or  other 
like  guidance,  supplied  itself  with  representative  rulers  as  well  as  with 
adequate  teachers.  Supernatural  government  disappeai'ed  with  proph- 
ecy and  the  gifts  of  healing  and  of  tongues,  yet  government  remained 
as  an  enduring  feature  of  the  Church.  This  is  apparent  from  numer- 
ous references  in  the  epistles  to  church  authority  and  church  adminis- 
tration. Nor  is  there  any  reference  to  such  administration  as  exercised 
directly  by  the  multitude  of  communicants :  what  we  see  habituaUy 

*  Gibbon,  referring  to  the  organization  of  the  Church  as  late  as  the  beginning 
of  the  fourtli  century,  says: 

"The  iiublic  functions  of  religion  were  solely  entrusted  to  the  established 
ministers  of  the  Church,  bishops  and  the  presbyters,  two  appellations  which,  in 
their  first  origin,  appear  to  have  distinguished  the  same  office,  and  the  same 
order  of  persons.  The  name  of  presbyter  was  expressive  of  their  age,  or  rather 
of  their  gravity  and  wisdom.  The  title  of  bishop  denoted  their  inspection  over 
the  faith  and  manners  of  tlie  Christians  who  were  committed  to  their  pastoral 
care."     Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Chap.  XV. 


142  THE  CHURCH   AS   A  DIVINE    KINGDOM. 

is  goveruinent  through  chosen  representatives  acting  as  a  body.  The 
autonomy  of  the  Church  is  indeed  preserved ;  these  representatives  are 
not  imposed  upon  it,  without  its  own  consent,  neither  do  they  appear 
to  rule  as  in  their  own  right;  it  is  the  Church  which  rules  in  and 
through  them.  The  ordinations  of  elders,  bishops,  overseers,  by  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  by  Titus,  and  by  the  presbytery  (1  Tim.  4:  J.4)  indi- 
cate no  assumed  prolatical  supremacy  on  their  part,  but  only  wise  and 
right  action  in  and  for  the  churches  which  they  thus  supplied  with 
proper  official  representatives.  And  what  becomes  thus  apparent  as 
the  primitive  process  of  church  construction,  stands  forth  as  a  rule 
which  in  all  ordinary  conditions  ought  still  to  be  regarded  as  safe  and 
wise,  and  in  some  real  sense  authoritative.  Certainly,  no  inferior 
place  can  properly  be  assigned  to  government  among  the  functions  of 
a  Christian  church,  nor  is  it  likely  that  the  representative  principle 
thus  introduced  can  wisely  be  altogether  abandoned, 

4.  A  fourth  principle  which  the  Presbyterian  polity  specially  incor- 
porates is  the  fellowship  of  the  churches,  and  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
as  well  in  government  as  in  more  general  forms  of  administrative 
association.  Against  that  false  notion  of  unity,  which  destroys  the 
autonomy  of  the  particular  church,  and  subjects  all  churches  to  the 
sway  and  domination  of  a  priestly  class,  this  polity  is  altogether  op- 
posed :  the  imperial  unity  of  the  papacy,  the  formal  and  political  unity 
of  prelacy,  it  strenuously  resists  as  contrary  to  the  supreme  law  of 
Christian  liberty.  In  like  manner,  it  opposes  the  antithetic  idea  that 
the  unity  of  the  Church  inculcated  in  the  New  Testament,  is  rathei' 
an  invisible,  imperceptible  ideal  than  a  practical  and  useful  fact,  or  at 
best  an  occasional  and  limited  rather  than  a  comprehensive,  structural 
basis  of  church  fellowship.  It  points  to  the  Council  at  Jerusalem,  not 
indeed  as  presenting  an  inspired  model  to  be  exactly  followed  in  all 
coming  time,  but  as  indicating  a  great  scriptural  principle  by  which 
the  churches  of  Christ  were  to  be  habitually  guided  in  their  organic 
association.  Nothing  could  be  stronger  than  the  teachings  of  Paul  re- 
specting that  unity  of  faith,  order,  constitution,  which  was  so  well  ex- 
emplified in  this  primitive  Council:  Eph.  4:  1-16,  Rom.  12:  4-9, 
1  Cor,  12 :  4-27,  Traces  of  the  actual  recognition  of  this  principle 
of  fellowship,  and  even  of  confederation,  appear  in  various  passages  in 
the  Acts  and  in  the  Epistles,  Nor  can  any  just  reason  be  urged  why 
this  unity  should  not  express  itself  in  governmental  administration  as 
well  as  in  more  general  fellowship, — why  church  should  not  be  asso- 
ciated with  church,  as  well  as  saint  with  saint,  in  the  exposition  and 
applying  of  the  law  of  Christ  to  the  life  and  conduct  of  the  disciple. 
What  we  actually  see,  in  the  way  of  discipline,  involves  the  particular 
church  only,  1   Cor,  5  :  1-7 :  and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any 


THE   PRESBYTERIAN   SYSTEM  :   FURTHER   REMARKS.  14-3 

instance  occurred,  during  the  first  decade  of  organized  Christianity,  in 
which  a  case  of  discipline  was  carried  beyond  the  individual  congre- 
gation. Yet,  the  doctrine  of  cliurcli  unity  doubtless  grew  more  and 
more  into  favor,  under  apostolic  instruction,  as  the  contribution  of  the 
churches  of  Macedonia  and  Achaia  to  the  needy  saints  at  Jerusalem 
beautifully  shows,  Rom.  15:  26  ;  nor  do  we  need  to  descend  very  far 
beyond  the  apostolic  century  to  find  this  doctrine  assuming  even  an 
unwarranted  place  and  influence,  and  finally  to  see  the  autonomy  and 
jurisdiction  of  the  particular  church  wholly  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  an 
assuming  hierarchy. 

5.  Such  in  outline  are  the  scriptural  foundations  on  which  the  Pres- 
byterian polity  claims  to  rest.  In  the  aggregate  they  justify  the  con- 
clusions, that  the  right  of  government  like  the  right  of  organization 
was  vested,  not  in  the  ministry  as  an  order,  but  in  the  church, — that, 
in  accordance  with  antecedent  usage,  the  exercise  of  this  right  was 
committed  by  the  church  to  representative  men,  who  both  ruled  and 
taught  within  the  household  of  faith, — that  the  administration  of  gov- 
ernment passed  by  degrees  into  the  hands  of  a  specific  class  chosen  for 
the  purpose,  but  under  final  responsibility  to  the  church  itself, — and 
that  under  this  general  system,  with  many  variations  such  as  circum- 
stances demanded,  the  Church  at  large  came  at  length  to  be  substan- 
tially Presbyterian,  rather  than  either  Prelatic  or  Independent  in  its 
structure  and  administration. — It  is  admitted  that  this  type  of  polity, 
planted  thus  on  the  popular  or  democratic  principle,  did  not  long  main- 
tain its  place  against  the  imperialism  which  possessed  the  life  of  the 
times  at  all  other  points,  and  which  even  before  the  death  of  John,  had 
invaded  and  infected  the  Church:  3  John  9-10.  That  imperialism 
found  its  incarnation  first  in  prelacy,  and  then  by  a  natural  develop- 
ment in  that  papal  usurpation  which  for  twelve  centuries,  as  a  species 
of  Antichrist,  lorded  it  over  the  heritage  of  God.  Yet  the  growth 
of  this  more  primitive  polity  since  the  Reformation,  and  in  close  con- 
junction with  the  cardinal  and  scriptural  doctrines  then  enunciated, 
and  its  extensive  acceptance  in  all  countries  where  those  doctrines  have 
been  carried,  furnish  striking  evidence  both  of  its  scriptural  quality 
and  of  its  practical  worth.  And  to  this  might  be  added  much  con- 
vincing evidence  derived  from  its  historic  career,  from  its  afiiliations 
with  strong  doctrine  and  with  high  religious  culture,  from  its  deep 
sympathy  with  human  liberty  and  human  rights,  and  from  its  vast 
propagative  force  as  a  missionary  agency,  both  in  Christian  and  in 
heathen  lands.  ^ 

XII.   Cardinal  Principles  in  Administration. — Turning  at  this 

'  Baknes,  Albert,  Affinities  of  Presbyterlanism ;  Hodge,  Charles,  What  is  Pves- 
byterianism  ? 


144  THE  CHURCH  as  a  divine  kingdom. 

point  from  these  inquiries  respecting  tiie  law  of  cliurch  organization, 
to  the  further  question  relating  to  the  practical  administration  of 
church  government,  we  may  note  at  the  outset  certain  regulative 
principles  which  are  to  be  borne  carefully  in  mind,  in  such  admin- 
istration : 

First,  Christ  as  the  Divine  Head  of  the  Church  is  the  supreme 
Judge  and  Lord  in  all  ecclesiastical  administration.  Viewed  in  its  re- 
lation to  Him,  the  Church  is  essentially  theocratic, — it  is  a  sacred 
monarchy.  In  the  Old  Testament,  the  supremacy  of  the  Jehovah 
was  a  cardinal  fact;  in  the  Gospel  economy,  the  supremacy  of  the 
Messiah  is  no  less  cardinal.  And  with  this  divine  headship  there 
must  be  nothing  in  the  constitution  or  administration  of  the  Church 
to  interfere;  no  jierson  or  collection  of  persons,  uo  polity  or  govern- 
ment, can  assume  the  place  Avhich  rightfully  belongs  to  Him.  All 
human  jiowers  and  prerogatives  are  to  be  wielded  in  loyal  subservi- 
ence to  His  will ;  final  responsibility  to  Him  is  the  bond  by  which  both 
the  Church,  and  they  who  rule  within  it,  are  to  be  held.  Against  all 
assumption  of  independent  control,  whether  by  pope  or  prelate  or  pres- 
byter, or  by  the  household  of  faith  itself.  His  most  solemn  sentence  is 
pronounced;  2  Thess.  2:  4-8. 

Secondly :  the  Scriptures  are  the  supreme  and  binding  law.  In  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  as  in  the  Patriarchal,  the  divine  Law  was  of  ne- 
cessity supplemented  by  miraculous  manifestations — such  as  the  She- 
kinah  and  the  Urim  and  Thummim ;  but  under  the  Gospel,  the 
Written  Word  is  sufficient  and  final.  That  Word  is  ample  in  its 
scope;  no  church  has  occasion  to  add  any  thing  to  its  comprehensive 
requisitions.  Whatever  is  appended  to  this  divine  constitution,  in  the 
way  of  requirement  or  prohibition,  whether  by  individual  authority  or 
by  the  prescripts  of  councils,  or  in  any  other  way,  is  in  no  sense  obli- 
gatory upon  the  disciple.  This  Word  is  also  plain  in  its  directions, 
and  is  in  little  need  of  explanatory  legislation  by  the  Church.  It  is 
indeed  left  to  the  household  of  faith,  to  define  the  reach  of  its  provi- 
sions, and  to  indicate  specific  applications  of  its  generic  precepts;  but 
every  such  process  must  ever  be  conducted  in  the  clear  light  shining 
immediately  from  the  Scripture  itself.  This  Word  is  also  in  the  high- 
est measure  authoritative,  and  is  entitled  to  the  implicit  respect  and 
reverence  of  the  Church,  always  and  everywhere.  It  is  the  common 
law,  the  statutory  volume,  of  Christianity  ;  and  as  such  remains  per- 
petually the  regulative  guide  in  all  ecclesiastical  administration.  Its 
place  and  seat  in  the  Church  are  no  less  supreme  or  absolute,  than 
those  of  Christ  Himself.  The  guidance  of  the  Spirit  is  indeed  to  be 
invoked  in  all  exercise  of  church  authority ;  but  as  an  inspiring  rule  in 
such  exercise,  the  Spirit  and  the  Word  will  ever  be  one. 


i 


CARDINAL  PRINCIPLES   IN   ADMINISTRATION.  145 

Thirdly :  the  hmits  of  ecclesiastical  administration  are  also  divinely 
prescribed.  One  of  the  most  serious  errors  in  such  administration, 
lies  in  the  extension  of  church  control  beyond  its  legitimate  bounda- 
ries,— the  assumption  of  the  right  to  rule  in  spheres  into  which  it  is 
not  competent  for  the  Church  to  enter.  On  the  basis  of  the  headship 
of  Christ  above  all  earthly  authorities,  and  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
Scripture  above  all  human  laws  or  constitutions,  the  sway  of  the 
Church  has  often  been  carried  intrusively,  and  even  tyrannically, 
into  the  family  and  into  the  state,  as  well  as  into  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual Christian.  A  spiritual  despotism,  thus  usurping  authority  over 
man  in  every  relation,  has  more  than  once  made  its  appearance  in 
Christendom,  to  the  irreparable  injury  both  of  religion  and  of  the 
souls  of  men.  In  like  manner,  the  Church  has  often  penetrated  un- 
justifiably into  the  sphere  of  the  individual  conscience,  either  forbid- 
ding the  believer  to  do  what  the  Bible  clearly  allows,  or  commanding 
him  to  do  what  the  Word  of  God  does  not  require.  Abundant  illus- 
trations of  such  error  in  administration  will  at  once  present  themselves; 
the  records  of  organized  Christianity,  under  Protestant  varieties  in 
polity,  as  well  as  under  the  domination  of  the  Papacy,  continually 
reveal  them. 

The  cardinal  rule  to  be  observed,  is  the  strict  limitation  of  church 
control  within  the  sphere  and  under  the  conditions  divinely  prescribed, 
Christ  is  indeed  the  Lord  of  providence  and  of  human  life,  as  well  as 
Lord  over  His  own  j^eople:  but  His  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world, 
neither  is  His  law  to  be  asserted  authoritatively,  or  His  supremacy  au- 
thoritatively maintained  by  the  Church,  over  human  kingdoms  or 
authorities,  as  by  a  species  of  force.  The  State  is  as  supreme  within 
its  own  sphere  as  the  Church  is,  and  the  attempt  of  the  Church  to 
control  the  State,  through  any  other  agency  than  that  of  spiritual  in- 
fluence, is  a  plain  usurpation.  Christ  is  also  Lord  of  the  believer, 
and  the  soul  saved  by  His  grace  is  bound  to  be  loyal  to  Him  in  all 
its  life ;  but  there  is  a  vast  sphere  of  personal  experience,  privilege, 
duty,  with  which  it  would  be  sacrilege  on  the  part  ot  the  Church,  as 
the  appointed  representative  of  Christ,  to  intermeddle.  Its  adminis- 
trative functions  must  be  limited  chiefly  to  the  outward  life  and  actions 
of  those  who  are  associated  in  it ;  and  to  their  life  and  actions  mainly 
as  these  stand  in  some  relation  to  the  great  ends  for  which  the  Church 
is  constituted,  and  to  its  standing  and  efliciency  as  a  representative  of 
the  Gospel  among  men.  It  ought  also  to  be  added  that,  within  the 
limited  sphere  thus  defined,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  must  ever 
be  exercised  under  numerous  limitations;  and  like  other  instrumentali- 
ties wielded  by  man,  must  often  fail  in  practice  to  gain  the  high  results 
at  which  it  aims. 


146  THE   CHURCH   AS  A   DIVINE   KINGDOM. 

XIII,  Practical  Administration  :  Authority  and  Obedi- 
ence.— One  marked  feature  in  the  exercise  of  these  churcli  functions 
under  the  Gospel,  should  be  noted  at  this  point.  In  the  Mosaic  econ- 
omy, though  human  instruments  such  as  priests  and  prophets  were 
always  employed  in  this  task  of  administration,  the  theocratic  element 
was  so  constant,  so  conspicuous,  and  so  controlling,  as  to  leave  little 
room  for  the  play  or  exhibition  of  this  human  element.  Jehovah 
Himself  governed  almost  visibly ;  the  authority  was  always  His,  and 
the  obedience  was  always  rendered  directly  to  Him.  Under  the  Gos- 
pel, Avhile  the  Messiah  sacrifices  nothing  in  supremacy  or  authoritative- 
ness,  the  human  factors  or  agents  appear  much  more  prominent, — the 
part  which  man  performs  is  much  more  distinct  and  more  responsible. 
Hence  the  necessity  for  careful  consideration  of  both  the  authority 
vested  in  those  who  rule,  and  the  obedience  required  from  those  who 
are  governed  within  the  Church. 

The  authority  vested  in  those  who  rule,  as  we  have  already  seen  in 
contemplating  the  ministerial  office,  is  never  inherent  in  the  officer, 
but  is  delegated  to  him  by  the  Church.  It  is  true  that  this  power  is 
entrusted  to  the  official  by  Christ  Himself  also,  and  is  therefore  to  be 
wielded  under  a  supreme  sense  of  responsibility  to  him.  Yet  the 
assumption  of  any  official  power  is  justifiable  only  when  the  Church 
approves, — when  the  voice  of  the  Master  and  the  voice  of  His  people 
are  heard,  in  holy  harmony  one  with  the  other,  commissioning  the  per- 
son chosen.  As  delegated,  such  authority  is  never  personal,  but  always 
functional — an  adjunct  of  the  office,  rather  than  an  endowment  of  the 
man.  Although  Christ  and  His  people  ordinarily  associate  the  pos- 
session of  appropriate  gifts  w'ith  the  formal  investiture  with  official  pre- 
rogatives, yet  it  is  never  the  gifted  man,  but  the  qualified  official  who 
rules.  And  as  this  authority  is  thus  delegated  and  functional,  it  is  of 
necessity  limited  in  its  scope  within  the  scriptural  and  constitutional 
boundaries  pi-escribed.  It  is  limited  first  of  all.  by  the  supreme  au- 
thority of  our  Lord,  and  by  the  instructions  clearly  contained  in  His 
Word  as  the  supreme  law.  It  is  limited  further  to  the  Church, — is 
never  to  be  exercised  outside  of  the  Christian  fold.  And  within  this 
general  sphere,  it  is  limited  still  further  to  those  specific  duties  and 
functions  which  the  Church  has  assigned  to  the  office.  No  church 
official  is  authorized  to  interfere  either  with  the  functions  or  preroga- 
tives of  any  official  of  another  class,  or  with  the  private  life,  the  per- 
sonal conscience,  of  the  individual  member.  Exercised  beyond  its 
appointed  boundaries,  even  the  worthiest  office  becomes  an  usurpation 
aud  a  curse,  both  to  the  holder  and  to  the  body  over  which  he  pre- 
sides. 

It  is  especially  important  to  emphasize  afresh  at  this  point  the  doc- 


AUTHORITY   AND   OBEDIENCE,  147 

trine  of  Scripture  with  regard  to  the  spirit,  the  temper,  in  which  all 
such  authority  is  to  be  wielded.  For  it  is  evident  that,  far  within  the 
sphere  assigned  to  him,  and  in  the  legitimate  exercise  of  his  powers,  a 
church  officer  may  rule  in  such  a  temper  as  makes  him  a  tyrant  rather 
than  a  servant.  The  best  polity  is  no  certain  safeguard  here.  The 
disposition  to  enforce  just  law  in  a  legalistic  spirit  is  itself  an  infringe- 
ment of  the  higher  law  of  love.  Cold  indifference  to  the  feelings  or 
claims  of  those  governed,  ambitious  desire  to  control  where  control  is 
not  demanded,  the  disposition  to  make  or  to  carry  issues  which  are 
personal  rather  than  generic  or  abstract,  are  all  at  variance  with  the 
biblical  injunctions  to  those  who  rule  within  the  household  of  faith. 
The  spirit  of  service,  the  temper  of  charity,  the  mood  of  meekness 
and  unselfish  consecration,  the  supreme  sense  of  allegiance  to  the  Gos- 
pel law,  and  loyalty  to  Him  who  is  Lord  over  all,  are  indispensable 
here.  If  the  church  officer  possesses  not  these  traits  in  high  degree — 
if  he  be  not  free  essentially  from  these  faults  and  defects,  he  can  only 
offend  the  little  ones  whom  he  aspires  to  govern  and  train  for  the 
Master :  and  better  were  it  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about 
his  neck,  and  he  were  drowned  in  the  depths  of  the  sea. 

But  church  administration  presupposes  obedience  as  well  as  author- 
ity. The  mood  of  disobedience,  the  spirit  of  transgression,  the  man- 
ifestation of  revolt  and  rebellion,  are  all  alien  to  the  conception  of  the 
Church  as  a  divine  kingdom.  AVhere  there  are  rulers  appointed  of 
God,  there  must  be  subjects  in  whom  appropriate  submission,  fidelity 
in  conforming  to  law,  fealty  to  the  body  of  Christ,  should  find  a  just 
manifestation.  Such  obedience  must,  first  of  all,  be  intelligent, — 
based  upon  proper  recognition  by  the  subject  of  the  nature  of  the 
Church  as  an  organism,  of  the  constitution  and  laws  to  be  obeyed, 
and  of  the  authority  exercised  over  him.  A  blind  or  thoughtless  sub- 
mission are  not  sufficient :  the  sway  of  Christ  in  His  Church  has  its 
foundation  in  the  educated  intelligence  of  His  people.  This  obedi- 
ence must  also  be  cordial, — carrying  with  it  the  heart  and  the  will,  as 
truly  as  the  understanding.  As  the  household  of  faith  rests  essentially 
on  the  voluntary  principle,  no  one  entering  it  or  remaining  in  it 
except  by  choice,  so  all  force,  compulsion,  obedience  secured  by  sever- 
ities or  constraints,  are  at  variance  with  the  nature  of  the  connection 
assumed.  Nor  is  it  mere  surrendery  of  the  will,  a  passive  obedience 
such  as  Romanism  requires,  that  is  demanded  here :  the  loving  soul 
must  cordially  acquiesce  both  in  the  law  and  in  the  authority  that 
enforces  it. 

Church  obedience,  by  the  nature  of  the  case,  should  be  both  complete 
and  perpetual.  It  implies  more  than  an  observance  of  some  requisi- 
tions to  the  exclusion  of  others, — the  judgment  or  wish  of  the  subject 


148  THE   CHURCH   AS   A   DIVINE   KINGDOM. 

overruling,  wherever  it  is  inclined,  the  will  and  law  of  the  body.  It 
implies  more  than  an  occasional  observance,  followed  by  neglect  or  by 
transgression,  at  the  option  of  the  disciple.  True  obedience  submits 
to  every  demand  of  rightful  authority,  and  submits  at  all  times,  and 
amid  whatever  difficulties.  The  vital  figure  which  Paul  employs  in 
his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians — the  figure  of  the  body  made  up  of 
many  living  members,  each  filling  its  own  office,  and  making  its  benefi- 
cent contribution  to  the  efficiency  and  welfare  of  the  whole  structure — 
beautifully  illustrates  that  great  duty  of  spiritual  obedience  on  which 
the  Apostle  in  other  passages  so  frequently  dwells;  Rom.  12:  5-6. 
Such  biblical  obedience  properly  culminates  in  that  noble  loyalty  to 
the  Church,  which  in  the  list  of  Christian  virtues  may  well  rank  next 
to  loyalty  to  Christ  Himself; — not  merely  personal  submission,  how- 
ever hearty  or  complete,  but  positive  fealty  which  stands  fearlessly  by 
the  church  authority,  however  imperilled  in  the  discharge  of  its  legiti- 
mate functions,  and  which  defends  and  supports  the  Church  at  all 
hazards  with  knightly  ardor,  as  the  true  Bride  of  Christ  among  men. 
XIV.  Discipline  as  a  Church  Function. — It  only  remains, 
under  the  general  topic  here  considered,  to  sketch  briefly  the  discipline 
which  the  Church  of  Christ  is  constrained  to  administer  to  those  who 
may  prove  to  be  disobedient.^  In  the  broadest  sense,  discipline  im- 
plies training,  regulation,  culture  of  those  who  are  loyal  at  heart,  as 
well  as  the  correction  of  transgressors.  More  specifically,  the  term  re- 
lates to  the  latter  process  in  its  various  forms  and  stages.  In  this 
sense,  it  has  been  well  defined  as  the  exercise  of  that  authority,  and 
the  application  of  that  system  of  laws,  which  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
hatli  appointed  in  His  Church,  with  reference  to  all  visible  dej^artures 
from  the  principle  of  loyalty.  Discipline  was  recognized  in  the  Prot- 
estant Symbols  generally,  as  a  legitimate  and  necessary  function  of 
the  Church,  though  in  practice  the  Protestant  bodies  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  often  departed  very  Avidely  from  their  own 
doctrine  as  to  the  obligation  of  the  churches  to  exercise  such  discipline. 
While  the  right  to  such  exercise  was  theoretically  maintained,  on  the 
general  ground  that  the  household  of  faith  is  also  a  divine  and  author- 
itative kingdom,  the  duty  was,  as  Calvin  confesses,  far  too  widely  neg- 
lected. The  right  itself  was  also  in  many  instances  sadly  perverted, 
— especially  where  the  civil  authorities  were,  as  in  Geneva,  admitted 
as  administrative  functionaries  within  the  Church,  and  discipline  was 

'  References  on  Church  Discipline ;  General  Principles :  Cai,vin,  Institutes,  Book 
IV:  12;  DwiGHT,  Sermon  102;  Dick,  TAeo/.,  Lect.  101;  Watson,  Theol.  Inst.,  Part 
IV,  Chap.  II;  Van  Oosterzee,  Practical  TAeoi.— Practical  Rules:  Scotch  First 
and  Second  Books  of  Discipline;  Presbyt.  Book  of  Discipline,  and  other  denom- 
inational Manuals. 


discipline:  general  definition.  149 

enforced  by  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  penalties.  Lutheran  princes 
in  like  manner  commanded  tlieir  subjects  to  attend  religious  service 
three  times  on  the  Sabbath,  and  for  failure  punished  the  rich  with 
fines,  and  the  poor  with  scourging  and  imprisonment.  It  was  not 
strange  that  a  function  thus  perverted  should  fall,  as  it  did  in  most 
continental  communions,  into  general  disrepute.  The  revival  in  more 
recent  times,  of  both  the  doctrine  and  the  practice,  may  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  pleasing  indications  of  progress  in  both  spirituality  and 
effectiveness,  among  the  Protestant  churches.  Under  the  papal  concep- 
tion of  the  Church,  discipline  can  only  be  an  occasional  punitive  pro- 
cess, conducted  by  the  priesthood,  and  of  comjjaratively  little  signifi- 
cance, excepting  where  it  may  be  invoked  as  an  infliction  upon  civil 
rulers  or  heretical  bodies,  whom  the  Church  seeks  to  coerce. 

Protestantism  differs  from  the  Church  of  Rome  in  regarding  disci- 
pline as  a  power  vested,  not  in  the  priesthood,  but  in  the  church  as  a 
Christian  body.  Both  the  injunction  of  our  Lord  (Matt.  18  :  17),  and 
the  historic  example  recorded  in  the  epistles  to  the  Corinthian  church, 
show  that  the  collective  group  of  believers,  and  they  only,  possess  dis- 
ciplinary power.  It  has  sometimes  been  argued  on  doubtful  grounds, 
that  this  power  is  vested  solely  in  the  male  members  of  the  particular 
church — in  fact,  it  pertains  to  the  body  in  its  totality.  Yet,  as  we 
have  seen,  it  is  consistent  with  ancient  Jewish  usage,  and  with  sound 
principle,  to  commit  the  administration  of  this  trust  to  persons  specially 
competent  to  discharge  it, — not  merely  to  those  who  may  fill  the  office 
of  instruction,  but  also  to  others  chosen  for  their  fitness  to  act  for  the 
body,  in  this  delicate  relation. 

Protestantism  differs  also  from  Romanism  in  its  general  definition  of 
disciplinable  offences.  An  offence  has  been  very  broadly  defined  as 
anything  in  the  principles  or  practice  of  a  church  member  which  is 
contrary  to  the  Word  of  God,  or  which,  if  it  be  not  in  its  own  nature 
sinful,  may  tempt  others  to  sin,  or  mar  their  spiritual  edification: 
Presbyt.  Book  of  Discipline,  Chap.  I.  More  specifically,  such  offences 
may  be  classified  as  follows :  overt,  and  especially,  flagrant  sins,  1  Cor. 
5 :  1-5  ;  gross  indulgences,  inconsistent  with  the  Christian  life,  1  Cor. 
5:  11;  maintaining,  and  especially,  inculcating,  heretical  or  mischiev- 
ous doctrines,  Titus  3:  10-11,  Gal.  1:  8-9;  serious  neglect  of  clear 
personal  duty,  to  the  dishonor  of  Christ  and  His  Church,  1  Tim.  5: 
7-8  ;  plain  violation  of  the  precepts  of  Christian  brotherhood,  Matt. 
18;  15  ;  leading  others  astray  from  the  path  of  obedience,  2  Thess.  3: 
6,  14  ;  exciting  divisions  and  schism  in  the  Church,  Rom.  16:  17-19. 
The  primary  and  main  tests  of  an  offence  are  always  to  be  found  in 
the  Scripture :  whatever  is  not  directly  or  by  clear  implication  con- 
demned in  the  Word  of  God,  can  not  expose  the  disciple  to  just  dis- 


150  TILE   CIIUKCII   AS   A   DIVINE    KINGDOM. 

cipline.  Subordiunto  tests  may  apj^eai',  as  in  the  definition  given,  in 
the  demonstrated  relations  of  an  act  to  other  disciples,  or  to  the  church 
as  a  body.  It  is  also  requisite,  as  a  rule  of  equity  and  of  prudence, 
that  the  alleged  offence  should  be  carefully  estimated  both  in  the  light 
of  the  Bible,  and  in  view  of  "what  may  be  known  of  its  flagrancy  or 
its  mischievous  influence.  The  evils  Avhich  discipline  is  divinely  de- 
signed to  prevent,  must  be  obvious,  and  all  milder  jireliminary  processes 
must  have  been  tried,  before  the  offender  can  be  scrijiturally  arraigned. 

The  ends  to  be  sought  in  church  discipline  arc,  in  general,  the  vin- 
dication of  the  honor  of  Christ,  and  the  j^romotion  of  the  purity  and 
edification  of  the  Church ; — more  specifically,  the  removal  of  offences 
which  are  injurious  to  the  church  life,  and  to  the  social  influence  of 
Christianity.  The  benefit  of  the  offender  himself  is  to  be  sought,  so 
far  as  this  is  consistent  with  these  more  general  ends.  A  disciplinary 
process  may  sometimes  avail  to  bring  such  a  person  to  repentance  and 
return  to  duty,  when  all  milder  measures  have  failed.  Disci2:)line  is 
often  of  value  in  deterring  those  who  might  be  misled  by  evil  example, 
or  who  if  unwarned  would  be  liable  to  fall  into  like  evil  courses. — 
The  spirit  in  Avhich  discipline  is  to  be  administered  is  sufficiently  in- 
dicated in  the  strong  apostolic  cautions  respecting  it ;  Gal.  G :  1-2, 
1  Cor.  4:  21,  1  Thess.  3:  15,  and  others.  The  offending  disciple  is 
not  to  be  counted  as  an  enemy,  but  admonished  as  a  brother :  it  is  not 
the  rod,  as  a  symbol  of  authority,  but  the  temjoer  of  love  and  of  meek- 
ness, that  is  to  govern.  It  is  not  so  much  the  function  of  the  Church 
to  punish,  as  to  correct  and  to  improve  and  edify ;  the  restoration  of 
the  wanderer  is  to  be  sought,  from  love  to  Christ  and  to  the  souls  of 
men.  In  the  royal  passage.  Matt.  18:  15-18,  our  Lord  has  Himself 
indicated  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  method  to  be  pursued,  in  aU  cases 
of  offence.  Unquestionably  there  is  great  need  for  most  careful  recog- 
nition of  such  injunctions,  since  no  function  of  the  Church  or  of  its 
officers  carries  with  it  greater  exposures,  or  subjects  the  sanctified  char- 
acter to  severer  tests. 

Respecting  the  modes  of  instituting  discipline,  and  the  extent  to 
which  disciplinary  processes  may  be  carried,  the  Scriptures  lay  down 
none  but  general  rules,  leaving  particular  steps  and  measures  to  the 
judgment  of  the  household  of  faith.  The  law  of  Christ,  just  referred 
to,  is  regarded  by  all  Protestant  communions  as  the  prescribed  basis  of 
all  judicial  procedure.  It  is  also  recognized  by  them,  that  all  church 
action  is  ministerial  and  declarative  only, — that  the  imposition  of 
penalties  bearing  upon  the  person  or  property,  or  on  the  social  or  civil 
position  of  an  offender,  does  not  belong  to  the  Church.  Most  Prot- 
estant churches  admit  that  the  civil  power  can  not  properly  be  in  any 
way  invoked,  to  assist  in  the  enforcement  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 


THE   CHURCH   IN   HUMAN   SOCIETY.  151 

or  infliction.  The  Church  prescribes  its  own  penalties,  which  may  end 
in  private  confession  and  proper  reparation  to  a  party  aggrieved,  or  in 
public  confession  or  admonition ;  or  may  proceed  to  a  suspension  of 
the  offender,  for  a  period  more  or  less  prolonged,  from  the  enjoyment 
of  church  privileges,  or  to  an  actual  and  open  excommunication  of 
the  guilty  party  from  the  household  of  faith.*  This  right  is  vested  in 
every  church  organization,  and  no  external  power,  civil  or  otherwise, 
can  justly  arrest  its  exercise.  The  right  of  restoring  offending  per- 
sons to  fellowship,  upon  adequate  evidence  of  repentance  and  return 
to  Christian  duty,  is  also  vested  in  the  Church :  its  doors  should  be  no 
more  closed  against  a  penitent  backslider,  than  against  the  repenting 
sinner  for  the  first  time  consecrating  himself  to  Christ. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CHURCH  IN  HUMAN  SOCIETY 
ITS   UNITY,  ITS   GROWTH,  ITS  RELATIONS. 

The  Church  has  thus  far  been  contemplated  as  an  institu- 
tion, standing  at  the  outset  in  the  divine  plan  of  salvation, 
and  historically  manifested  in  accordance  with  that  plan, — 
an  institution  composed  of  certain  constituents,  impersonal 
and  personal,  and  organized  permanently  under  a  definite 
constitution,  as  a  divine  structure  or  kingdom,  endowed  with 
every  requisite  to  complete  organization  and  to  enduring 
efficiency.  But  this  may  be  regarded  as  wholly  an  interior 
view ;  it  portrays  the  Church  as  it  exists  inwardly,  but  does 
not  indicate  the  character  of  this  unique  institution  as  a 
spiritual  agency  acting  extensively  and  vitally  on  the  world 
of  humanity.  These  external  aspects  and  services  will  now 
be  considered.  Three  general  topics  successively  demand,  at- 
tention ;  the  question  of  Church  Unity,  the  Laws  of  Church 
Growth,  and  the  generic  Relations  sustained  by  the  Church 
in  Human  Life. 

I.   Present  Church  Divisions  :  Forms  and  Causes. — In  the  pre- 
ceding discussions,  the  Church  has  always  been  contemplated  as  essen- 


152  THE   CHURCH   IN   HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

tially  one.  In  the  three  great  epochs  of  its  history,  it  has  indeed  pre- 
sented itself  in  three  corresponding  forms:  but  these  have  appeared 
only  as  successive  stages  in  the  development  of  one  and  the  same  di- 
vine organism.  Extensive  divisions  of  view  have  also  become  ajiparent, 
in  respect  to  creeds  and  sacraments  and  ordinances,  to  the  doctrine  of 
membership  and  of  offices  and  officers,  and  to  the  modes  of  polity 
upon  which  the  Church  should  be  constructed.  But  these  divisions, 
however  extensive  or  serious,  have  not  furnished  decisive  proof  that 
the  Church  is  not  in  essence  and  substance  one.  We  have  found 
rather  that  this  principle  of  unity  is  in  fact  as  essential  to  the  very 
conception  of  the  Church,  notwithstanding  such  divisions,  as  it  is  to 
the  conception  of  the  human  body  with  which  the  Church  is  so  often 
compared  in  Scripture ;  we  have  found  that  if  the  Church  is  not,  be- 
neath all  varieties  and  antagonisms,  thus  one  and  single,  no  adequate 
account  can  be  given,  either  of  its  existence,  or  of  its  place  and  offices 
in  the  scheme  of  salvation. 

Yet  ecclesiastical  history  is  a  record  of  innumerable  conflicts,  diver- 
sities, separations,  schisms,  within  this  holy  and  gracious  organism. 
The  one  Church  of  God  presents  itself  before  us  in  fact  as  an  exten- 
sive series  of  churches,  widely  unlike  in  faith  and  order  and  worship, 
and  often  in  the  attitude  of  distrust  or  aversion,  or  of  open  antagonism. 
Nominal  Christendom  is  divided  into  the  three  great  sections:  the 
Greek,  the  Roman,  and  the  Protestant.  The  Roman  communion,  and 
in  great  degree  the  Greek  communion  also,  have  each  maintained  an  ex- 
ternal unity,  in  the  presence  of  many  inward  differences  and  confficts. 
Protestantism  exists  in  a  large  number  of  sects,  divided  not  merely  by 
geographic  lines,  but  by  multiplied  differences  in  construction,  method 
and  faith.  Within  its  main  divisions,  w'e  discover  an  extensive  array 
of  minor  organizations,  whose  differences  are  apparently  more  influen- 
tial in  practice  than  their  agreements,  and  whose  real  unity  in  Christ 
hardly  finds  any  distinct  form  of  expression.  Even  within  the  domain 
of  particular  denominations,  we  further  discover  schools,  parties,  ten- 
dencies, often  actively  at  war  with  each  other,  and  struggling  for  su- 
premacy at  whatever  cost  to  the  common  faith.  The  actual  attitude 
of  the  Christian  Church  is  thus  one  of  multiplicity,  division,  antago- 
nism, rather  than  of  that  unity  which  the  apostles  so  steadfastly  enjoined ; 
and  the  pathetic  prayer  of  Christ  that  His  people  might  all  be  one, 
suggests  to  the  student  of  the  Church  only  a  remote,  apparently  an 
unattainable,  ideal. 

Turning  to  consider  briefly  the  causes  of  such  multiplicity,  we  dis- 
cover first  of  all  the  simple  and  just  law  of  geographic  division,  conse- 
quent upon  the  distribution  of  the  Church  in  many  lands,  and  among 
widely  varying  nations.     It  is  indeed  a  recognizable  fact  of  Scripture, 


CAUSES   OF  CHUECH   DIVISION.  153 

that  the  disciples  at  Jerusalem,  aud  in  other  cities  also,  however  great 
their  numbers  grew  to  be,  were  associated  habitually  in  what  was 
termed  the  one  local  church  :  at  least,  no  evidence  of  local  separation, 
as  to  organization,  appears  in  the  record;  Acts  11  :  22,  13:  1,  1  Cor. 
1:2.  It  is  also  probable  that  the  plural  term,  churches,  was  employed 
only  in  describing  groups  composed  of  the  local  organizations  of  a  given 
region,  more  or  less  extensive ;  and  that  the  law  of  unity  still  predom- 
inated, even  under  the  sense  of  separation  thus  occasioned  by  distance; 
Rom.  16:  1-2:  and  the  apostolic  letters  to  churches.  But  at  length 
the  growth  of  the  common  Christianity  in  Western  Asia  and  in  Eastern 
Europe  compelled  a  completer  separation.  The  believers  in  each  lo- 
cality formed  a  church  for  themselves  ;  churches  thus  formed  were 
largely  independent  of  one  another;  and  steadily  extending  division 
on  the  geographic  basis  became  the  general  law. — This  law  is  still 
active,  aud  still  both  legitimate  and  universal.  Wherever  the  number 
of  believers  becomes  too  great  for  convenience  in  assembling  together 
for  worship,  or  wherever  they  are  too  widely  scattered  to  assemble  in 
any  given  place,  the  estabhshment  of  another  center  of  religious  life 
and  work  becomes  a  duty  as  well  as  a  necessity.  It  is  no  schism,  to 
multiply  churches  on  this  basis:  either  geographic  distribution  or 
numerical  magnitude  amply  justifies  the  process.  It  is  on  this  general 
ground  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  divisions  of  Protestantism,  in 
both  Europe  and  America,  are  to  be  explained.  It  was  natural  and 
just,  that  the  churches  in  any  given  province  or  state  should  associate 
themselves  in  a  form  of  unity,  bounded  by  the  courses  of  rivers  or  the 
lines  of  civil  government.  And,  had  the  taunt  of  Bossuet  had  no 
other  foundation  than  this,  the  Reformers  might  have  smiled  at  its 
impoteucy,  even  though  their  provincial  organizations  exhibited  less 
of  prestige  and  power  than  the  Church  of  Rome,  scattered  through 
many  lands,  yet  preserving  through  all  distribution  its  formal  unity. 
It  needs  only  to  be  noted  here  that  such  a  principle  suggests  its  own 
limitations:  and  that  any  excessive  multiplication  of  churches  along 
such  lines,  either  local  or  provincial,  is  a  schismatical  departure  from 
the  proper  unity  of  the  Gospel. 

But  at  this  point  another  law  of  distribution  comes  in, — the  law  of 
diversity.  Three  general  types  of  such  diversity  appear,  in  connection 
with  polity,  Avith  modes  of  worship,  and  Avith  systems  of  doctrine. 
Thus,  each  of  the  four  varieties  of  ecclesiastical  organization  has  its 
advocates  and  adherents;  and  Christendom  is  consequently  divided  into 
four  great  classes  of  churches,  existing  under  these  several  schemes  of 
organization.  The  Greek  Christian  and  the  Romanist  agree  in  their 
conception  of  a  hierarchal  administration,  but  differ  as  to  its  proper 
center  and  its  rightful  head.     The  prelatical  communions  agree  with 


154  THE   CHURCII   IN    IIU?IAN   SOCIETY. 

botli  in  locating'  authority  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  but  strenuously 
resi.^t  l)oth  tlic  j)atriarclial  and  the  papal  assumptions  of  supremacy.^ 
Popular  varieties  of  government  difier  from  all  of  these  in  locating 
church  power  in  the  people,  but  also  differ  widely  among  themselves 
as  to  the  extent  in  which  such  power  may  be  entrusted  by  the  people 
to  certain  representative  rulers,  and  as  to  the  proper  relations  of  church 
to  church  in  judicial  administration. — Modes  of  Avorship  furnish  a 
second  ground  of  diversity.  Two  great  classes  of  churches  here  come 
into  view.  Those  which  adhere  rigidly  to  liturgical  forms,  or  to  a  pre- 
scribed administration  of  the  sacraments,  or  to  certain  modes  of  praise, 
and  which  comi:)el  church  organization  on  their  specific  basis,  constitute 
the  first  class:  and  those  which  regard  written  liturgies  with  disfavor, 
rebel  against  formal  limitations  in  worship,  and  allow  variations  in  sac- 
ramental usage,  constitute  the  second.  A  third  class  of  denominations 
might  be  described  as  occupying  an  intermediate  position,  or  possibly 
one  of  indifference,  to  such  liturgical  issues,  and  as  being  organized 
rather  on  the  basis  of  distinctions  which  are  either  governmental  or 
doctrinal. — Varieties  in  belief  constitute  a  still  deeper  ground  of  church 
division.  Each,  of  the  main  types  of  theology — the  Lutheran,  the 
Arminian,  the  Calvinistic — furnishes  a  general  basis  for  denomina- 
tional distribution  :  and  within  these  general  lines  there  is  room,  as 
the  history  of  Protestant  theology  has  abundantly  shown,  for  still 
further  distribution  of  the  same  class.  While  all  are  agreed  in  the 
essential  facts  of  faith,  and  for  the  most  part  in  the  central  aspects  of 
the  truth  believed,  theories  and  explanations  differ  widely;  certain 
aspects  of  the  truth  are  emphasized,  while  others  are  retired ;  historical 
contentions  and  controversies  arise,  and  organic  divisions  are  created. 
It  is  hardly  needful  to  mention  here  the  segregations  of  this  class  which 
serious  heresies,  such  as  the  denial  of  the  deity  of  Christ,  have  occa- 
sioned: these  are  rather  separations  from  the  common  Christianity, 
than  organized  forms  of  belief  Avithin  it.  In  many  ways,  this  law  of 
distribution  on  the  basis  of  doctrine  makes  itself  apparent  in  history : 
Christendom  is  in  fact  almost  as  widely  separate  and  disparted  here,  as 
in  respect  to  worship  or  to  polity. 

II.  Church  Divisions:  Good  and  Evil  Fruits. — The  general  fact 
is  thus  confessed,  that  the  Church  of  (xod  on  earth  exists  under  wide 
varieties  of  name  and  organization.  The  main  causes,  and  the  more 
conspicuous  forms  of  such  variety,  have  just  been  noted.  Of  the  issues, 
good  and  evil,  of  such  a  complex  process  of  distribution,  there  is  much 
to  be  said : 

Postponing  for  the  moment  the  question  of  organic  unity  among  all 
believers  throughout  the  Avorld,  we  may  note  here  the  suggestive  fact 
that,  while  Judaism  was  struggling  to  preserve  an  external  unity  even 


division:  good  and  evil  fruits.  155 

though  it  was  perishing  spiritually,  the  Christian  Church  planted  itself 
from  the  first  on  the  broader  platform, — the  platform  of  spiritual  unity, 
notwithstanding  local  distribution  and  geographic  expansion.  Even 
wide  variety,  such  as  appeared  between  Jewish  and  Gentile  converts, 
or  between  the  schools  of  Apollos  and  Cephas  at  Corinth,  was  not  de- 
structive of  this  fundamental  sense  of  spiritual  unity.  And,  were  the 
multiplication  of  churches  to  be  conducted  in  our  time  as  it  was  in  the 
apostoUc  age,  with  no  characteristic  lines  of  separation  in  belief  or 
order,  there  would  be  nothing  in  the  process  in  any  degree  adverse  to 
the  most  complete  fellowship  on  the  part  of  contiguous  organizations. 
The  law  of  spiritual  unity  would  still  hold  the  Church  together  as 
one,  though  its  congregations  were  counted  by  millions. 

Nor  is  segregation  on  the  basis  of  recognized  differences,  such  as 
have  been  named,  necessarily  a  departure  from  this  cardinal  law.  If 
as  Protestants,  we  agree  for  example  in  the  position  that  there  is  no 
complete  form  of  polity  absolutely  imposed  in  Scripture,  and  that 
Christian  congregations,  organized  on  the  basis  of  either  of  the  exist- 
ing types  of  polity,  are  true  churches  of  Christ,  we  may  then  peace- 
ably divide  according  to  our  individual  belief  as  to  the  degree  of 
scripturalness,  or  of  general  value  and  desirableness  in  any  one  of  these 
admissible  types.  If  we  agree  that  liturgical  worship  is  Christian 
worship,  and  that  the  less  formal  worship  of  most  Protestant  commun- 
ions is  also  Christian  worship  ,we  may,  without  being  schismatical, 
follow  individual  preferences,  and  legitimately  seek  fellowship  with 
those  in  any  Christian  community  who  hold  like  preferences  in  the 
matter  of  devotion.  If  we  are  agreed  that  the  Lutheran,  the  Armin- 
ian,  and  the  Calvinistic  varieties  of  theology  are  alike  evangelical — 
that  they  contain,  amid  many  circumstantial  differences  in  arrange- 
ment and  emphasis  and  real  teaching,  the  essential  doctrines  of  grace, 
we  violate  no  law  of  the  Gospel  if  we  choose  one  rather  than  the 
others,  or  associate  ourselves  ecclesiastically  with  those  who  make  the 
same  choice.  The  existence  of  such  tendencies  to  difference  is  an  un- 
questionable fact,  and  decided  justification  of  these  tendencies  may  be 
found  in  the  very  nature  of  Christianity;  and  it  is  therefore  no 
schism  if  such  differences  are  allowed,  within  proper  limits,  to  affect 
Christian  fellowship  or  church  organization. 

There  are  indeed  some  advantages  naturally  suggesting  themselves 
to  our  thought,  which  may  result  to  the  general  cause  from  such  dis- 
tribution. The  principle  of  spiritual  unity,  for  example,  may  receive 
one  of  its  most  imi:)ressive  exemplifications  in  immediate  conjunction 
with  the  organizing  of  churches  and  denominations  on  these  subsidiary 
bases.  "While  the  Calvinist  and  the  Arminian  strongly  emi^hasize 
their  respective  conceptions  of  doctrine,  and  enter  into  organization 


156  THE   CIIURCU   IN    HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

with  Other  Calvinists  or  other  Armiuians  in  order  to  defend,  exalt, 
promul.uate  their  several  systems,  they  may  not  be  crowding  out  of 
sight  the  underlying  verities  in  which  as  Christians  they  are  agreed, 
but  may  rather  be  bringing  out  even  the  more  fully,  in  and  through 
their  theologic  contrasts,  the  one  blessed  Gospel  which  is  the  foundation 
of  their  belief  and  of  their  hope  of  salvation.  In  many  directions  it 
might  be  shown  that  denominational  divisions,  in  their  true  place  and 
office,  are  not  injurious,  but  are  even  beneficial  to  the  common  cause 
of  Christ.  The  popular  comparison  of  these  distributed  varieties  of 
Christianity  to  the  divisions  of  an  army,  moving  by  diverse  processes, 
and  under  different  array,  toward  a  common  consummation,  is  accurate 
as  well  as  trite. 

Schism  thus  enters  into  these  segregating  processes,  not  in  every 
stage  or  form,  but  simply  at  the  point  Avhere  division  changes  into  an- 
tagonism,— where  the  devotion  to  a  specific  theology,  or  polity,  or  mode 
of  worship,  brings  in  deviation  from  that  cardinal  law  of  love  Avhich 
binds  all  such  divisions  together  in  holy  oneness,  within  the  single  and 
indivisible  Household  of  Faith.  ^  No  one  can  be  blind  to  the  exist- 
ence of  this  liability,  in  various  forms.  It  is  discernible  in  the  dispo- 
sition to  insist  on  some  given  denominational  peculiarity,  such  as  the 
episcopate,  or  baptism  by  immersion,  or  the  singing  of  psalms  only,  as 
indispensable  to  the  constitution  of  a  Christian  church,  and  conse- 
quently to  refuse  the  name  of  a  church  to  any  Christian  body  organ- 
ized on  a  different  basis.  It  is  hardly  less  discernible  in  the  sectarian 
temper  which  emphasizes  unduly  any  such  peculiarity,  and  is  inclined 
to  enter  into  active  hostility  in  its  behalf,  or  to  look  coldly  or  con- 
temptuously on  those  brethren  in  Christ  who  refuse  to  receive  it.  It 
is  discernible  also  in  the  inclination  to  multiply  sects  upon  comj^ara- 
tively  trivial  issues,  or  to  build  up  higher  walls  of  separation  around 
existing  sects,  or  to  oppose  such  movements  as  the  body  of  Christ  is 
more  or  less  consciously  making  toward  closer  visible  union.  And, 
Avhile  a  temperate,  generous  denominationalism  may  be  justified  at  the 
high  tribunal  of  Christian  love,  all  true  disciples  of  Christ  are  bound 
to  resist,  in  whatever  form  it  may  appear,  this  schismatical  and  secta- 
rian spirit,  as  essentially  contrary  to  the  common  Gospel.  Certain  it 
is  that  the  Church  can  never  assume  its  proper  place,  or  wield  its  full 
measure  of  influence  in  human  society,  Avhile  such  a  spirit  prevails  in 
Christendom. 

III.    Organic  Oneness:  The  Papal  View. — The  Church  of  Kome 

'  See  the  two  impressive  sermons  of  John  Howe  on  the  Carnality  of  Rclir/ioiia 
Contention:  and  also  tliat  on  the  question,  appropriate  to  tlie  present  age,  Whdt 
may  most  hopefully  be  attempted  among  Protestants,  that  our  Divisions  may  not  be  our 
Ruin. 


ROMISH   DOCTRINE   OF  ORGANIC    ONENESS.  157 

claims  to  have  found  a  solution  of  this  perplexing  problem  of  unity  in 
its  doctrine  of  organic  oneness, — in  a  unificatian  of  Christendom  which 
is  formal  and  external,  rather  than  inward  or  vital.  The  elements  of 
this  organic  oneness  are,  first,  a  uniform  polity,  with  its  fixed  orders 
of  clergy,  with  its  pontifical  head,  with  its  established  rules  and  can- 
ons, to  be  accepted  as  authoritative  in  all  Christian  congregations 
throughout  the  world  :  secondly,  a  uniform  liturgy,  with  like  fixedness 
and  elaborateness  in  detail,  to  be  followed  exactly,  and  according  to 
pontifical  regulation,  by  all  believers  in  all  lands:  and  thirdly,  a  uni- 
form creed,  clear  and  full,  and  invested  with  authoritative  sacreduess, 
to  which  every  assembly  of  disciples,  wherever  located,  should  give 
implicit  credence.  In  order  to  the  securing  of  such  threefold  uni- 
formity, the  Church  of  Rome  maintains  that  there  must  be  to  this  one 
Church  a  geographic  center,  a  continuous  history,  and  a  single  supreme 
head,  in  whose  person  the  unity  of  Christendom  is  represented.  Such 
in  brief  is  the  papal  dogma,  and  such  is  the  papal  scheme  of  Christian 
unification.  It  is  at  least  conceivable  that  such  a  scheme  and  doctrine 
should  be  carried  out  in  history,  and  that  the  Church  of  Christ,  on 
the  basis  of  such  unity  in  polity,  worship  and  faith,  should  attach  itself 
universally  and  loyally  to  the  Roman  see,  as  its  proper  center  and 
representative.     The  dream  is  a  grand  one,  though  it  be  a  dream. 

The  attempt  at  realization  has  been  far  from  successful.  On  exter- 
nal grounds,  relating  to  the  geographic  location  and  the  papal  headship, 
the  Greek  Church,  and  certain  Prelatic  communions  also,  have  refused 
the  formal  union  proposed.  On  internal  grounds.  Protestantism  gen- 
erally has  broken  away  from  the  Romish  fellowship,  and  sought  unifi- 
cation on  a  deeper  principle,  a  broader  basis.  The  proposal  of  uni- 
formity in  government,  worship,  belief,  has  not  commended  itself  to 
Protestant  thought.  The  Papal  polity  has  exhibited  too  slight  biblical 
warrant,  and  has  proven  itself  in  practice  to  be  too  fraught  with  peril 
to  Christian  liberty.  The  liturgy  of  Rome  has  diverged  too  far  from 
the  teaching  and  models  of  Scripture,  and  is  too  heavily  overloaded 
with  sensuous  and  corrupting  accretions,  to  be  accepted  as  a  guide  and 
rule  in  devotion.  The  Romish  creed,  though  containing  much  that 
is  biblical,  falls  away  from  sound  doctrine  at  too  many  points,  and  is 
too  much  infected  with  human  elements,  to  be  believed  by  all  Christian 
men,  as  the  final  canon  and  norm  of  faith.  Moreover,  it  is  manifest 
historically  that  the  oneness  secured  in  this  external  way,  has  been 
formal,  ecclesiastical,  and  partial,  rather  than  spiritual  or  complete. 
The  uniform  polity  proposed,  has  tended  steadily  to  hierarchy,  and  to 
religious  despotism :  the  uniform  worship  has  resulted  in  the  grossest 
formalism  and  superstition :  and  the  uniformity  in  creed  has  issued 
extensively  in  the  destruction  of  rational  faith,  and  in  much  positive 


158  TIIR   CIIUKCU  IN    HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

unbelief,  even  within  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  "With  such  results  in 
full  view,  Protestantism  can  never  accept  the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  Christian  unity  which  Romanism  has  proposed. 

Nor  is  there  just  reason  for  belief,  that  any  present  efforts  at  organic 
union  among  Protestants  would  bring  a  larger  measure  of  success. 
Illustrations  of  such  effort  may  be  seen  on  one  side  in  those  struggles 
after  one  comprehensive  state  church,  which  have  appeared  so  conspic- 
uously in  the  history  of  Protestantism  in  Europe,  and  on  the  other  in 
the  earnest  endeavors  of  those  earnest  souls  who  see  in  such  organic 
oneness  the  proper  cure  for  the  current  evils  of  denominational  divis- 
ion. But  liistory  bears  steadily  increasing  testimony  to  the  futility  of 
the  attempt  to  make  the  church  in  any  country  coterminous  with  the 
state.  Nor  does  history  encourage  the  hope  of  universal  agreement 
through  moral  influence,  on  any  given  basis  of  organic  union.  No 
uniform  mode  of  organization  or  worship  could  be  proposed  at  present, 
•without  creating  new  and  fiercer  divisions;  no  uniform  standard  of  be- 
lief, without  developing  larger,  intenser  diversities.  Protestants  may 
amicably  agree  to  regard  their  differences  in  these  respects  as  relatively 
indifferent;  but  amicable  agreement  of  this  sort  is  not  union,  nor 
would  union  on  the  basis  of  such  indifferentism  possess  any  high  de- 
gree of  worth  or  of  effectiveness.  A  temperate  denominationalism, 
with  all  its  exposures,  is  a  better  practical  basis  than  indifferent  union- 
ism, or  a  dead  uniformity.  It  may  well  be  maintained  that,  wherever 
the  followers  of  Christ  are  few  in  number,  and  remote  in  position,  the 
organization  of  a  single  church  on  whatever  evangelical  basis  and 
under  Avhatever  rulings,  is  to  be  sought  as  the  best  attainable  expres- 
sion of  the  holy  tie  which  draws  such  disciples  tegether.  But  wherever 
other  conditions  exist,  such  an  obligation  loses  much  of  its  force ;  the 
influence  of  secondary  considerations  enters  in  legitimately  to  modify 
the  primary  law,  and  churches  which  represent  the  varieties  as  well  as 
the  unities  of  the  common  faith,  come  justly  into  existence.  Nor  is 
there  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that  such  varieties  will  cease  to  ex- 
ist, or  to  affect  ecclesiastical  organization,  and  denominational  develop- 
ment, even  down  to  millennial  times. 

IV.  Spiritual  Unity  :  The  Protestant  View. — Setting  aside  as 
impracticable  the  dream  of  organic  union,  whether  in  the  form  of  a 
state  church,  or  as  the  expression  of  a  controlling  Christian  charity. 
Protestantism  still  strongly  emphasizes,  as  a  cardinal  element,  the  un- 
derlying principle  of  spiritual  unity.  The  invisible  Church  in  whose 
existence  all  Protestants  believe,  is  always  one  and  indivisible  ;  and  all 
visible  churches,  built  on  evangelical  doctrine,  and  however  organized, 
have  a  legitimate  place  within  that  one  divine  household.  That 
household  can  not  indeed  be  said  to  include  these  various  churches 


PROTESTANT   DOCTRINE   OF  SPIRITUAL  UNITY.  159 

corporeally,  since  there  are  members  in  them  who  are  Christians  in 
form  only ;  nor  is  it  limited  by  them,  since  it  doubtless  contains  some 
who  belong  to  no  visible  church.  Yet  Protestantism  places  this  sub- 
lime conception  over  against  the  papal  dogma  of  organic  oneness,  and 
affirms  that,  in  the  spiritual  sense  here  indicated,  all  believers,  however 
far  apart  geographically  or  denominationally,  have  a  place  and  name 
within  this  one  holy  family — the  Coetiis  Fidelium,  which  indeed  in- 
cludes no  less  the  heavenly  than  the  earthly  disciples  of  the  Messiah. 
This  was  the  response  of  the  Reformers  to  the  claim  of  Rome,  and 
also  their  fraternal  response  and  greeting  to  one  another,  in  view  of  the 
external  divisions  which  were  holding  them  asunder.  It  is  indeed  a 
matter  of  history  that  many  leading  minds  among  them  longed  for 
some  closer  bond;  the  conception  of  a  great  confederation,  in  which 
all  the  Protestant  communions  might  in  some  way  be  visibly  joined  to- 
gether, found  many  earnest  advocates,  especially  in  the  Reformed 
circles.  But  events  proved  such  a  confederation  impracticable;  and  all 
rested  at  last  in  the  incorporation  in  their  Confessions  of  the  broad 
Christian  principle,  that  the  Church  of  God  on  earth,  despite  all  vari- 
eties, is  forever  and  indissolubly  One.  ^ 

It  must  be  confessed  that  Prosestantism  has  witnessed  many  serious 
departures  from  its  avowed  doctrine.  It  has  seen  sect  springing  up 
after  sect,  on  the  basis  of  slight  diversities  in  belief  or  order  or  mode 
of  devotion,  in  strange  indifference  to  this  fundamental  law.  It  has 
seen  the  spirit  of  sect  inciting  these  divided  communions  not  merely  to 
seclusion  from  one  another,  or  to  suspicion  or  alienation,  but  even 
to  bitter  rivalries  and  strenuous  warfare.  It  has  seen  denominations, 
Prelatic  and  Presbyterian  and  Independent,  striving  after  political  su- 
premacy, and  as  state  churches  making  intolerant  assaults  upon  the 
Christian  rights  of  other  churches.  For  two  centuries  or  more 
after  Protestantism  had  gained  its  position  in  the  northern  half  of 
Europe,  we  find  it  still  failing  to  carry  out  even  the  negative  princi- 
ple of  toleration ;  and  even  yet,  after  more  than  three  centuries  of  ex- 
perience, we  see  the  positive  principle  of  brotherhood  in  Christ 
struggling  in  vain  for  adequate  recognition.  The  history  of  Protest- 
ant Christianity  contains  many  a  sad  chapter,  illustrative  of  such 
fiilures  to  put  into  practice  what  all  have  agreed  to  hold  as  cardinal 
doctrine.     And  the  taunt  of  the  papist  and  the  jeer  of  the  unbeliever 

'  DuRY,  John,  Earnest  Plea  for  Gospel  Communion,  A.  D.  1654.  Also,  his  Pe- 
tition to  the  British  Parliament  for  the  calling  of  a  "General  Synod  of  Protest- 
tants  in  due  time,  for  the  better  settling  of  weighty  matters  in  the  Church  which 
now  trouble  not  only  the  consciences  of  most  men,  but  disturb  the  tranquillity 
of  publick  states,  and  divide  the  churches  one  from  another,  to  the  great  hind- 
rance of  Christianity,  and  the  dishonor  of  Religion."  See  also  Correspondence 
on  the  subject  between  Cranmer,  Calvin,  and  others :  Zurich  Letters. 


160  THE  CHUKCH  IN   HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

are  still  sharp  as  arrows,  in  the  breast  of  its  disunited  and  fragmentary 
comniuuions. 

Can  it  be  questioned  that  one  of  the  primal  duties  of  Protestantism 
in  our  time  is  to  seek  after  the  deeper,  purer  unity  which  belongs  es- 
sentially, according  to  the  scriptural  delineation,  to  the  Household  of 
Faith  ?  The  apparent  arrest  of  the  tendency  toward  segregation  around 
minor  issues,  and  the  movements  toward  organic  union  on  the  part  of 
denominations  separated  by  only  slight  <lifferences,  are  encouraging  in- 
dications that  tliis  obligation  is  coming  to  be  more  largely  realized. 
Such  also  is  tiie  closer  confederatiou  of  bodies  essentially  alike  in  faith 
and  order,  but  Avidely  separated  in  locality  and  in  respect  to  their  par- 
ticular mission.  ^  The  multiplied  forms  of  practical  fellowship  and 
union  in  Christian. service,  are  further  indications  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. The  spirit  of  unity,  as  inculcated  in  the  New  Testament,  has  at 
least  begun  to  manifest  itself  effectively  along  such  lines, — as  if  in 
introductory  answer  to  the  intercession  of  the  Redeemer.  But  these 
are  preliminary  indications  merely :  their  value  lies  largely  in  the  sug- 
gestion they  convey  of  possibilities  incomparably  greater.  How  much 
these  possibilities  may  yet  include,  a  thoughtful  student  of  that  media- 
torial prayer  would  find  it  difficult  to  define.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
unification  of  evangelical  Protestantism,  in  essence  if  not  in  organic 
form,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  deepest  impression  it  shall  make  upon 
all  its  members  and  on  the  world  at  large  will  be  one,  not  of  diversity, 
but  of  true  union,  is  a  result  not  only  possible  in  itself,  but  intrin- 
sically of  incalculable  moment  to  the  common  Christianity, — a  result 
for  Avhich  all  true  disciples,  in  imitation  of  Christ,  should  ever  pray. 

V.  The  Christian  Church  A  Growth  :  General  Conception. — 
In  his  letter  to  the  Ephesian  Church,  Paul  introduces,  and  skillfully 
blends  together,  two  familiar  images,  alike  descriptive  of  the  Church 
of  Christ:  Eph.  2:  21.  The  first  represents  that  Church  as  a  build- 
ing in  process  of  construction, — a  building  resting  on  divine  founda- 
tions, and  fitly  framed  together,  gradually  rising  stage  by  stage  into 
the  magnificent  proportions  of  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord.  The  second 
describes  it  rather  as  a  vital  growth,  a  living  tree,  starting  from  a 
divine  germ,  and  developing  by  healthful  processes,  until  it  reaches 
finally  its  consummation  as  a  matured  and  fruitful  organism  of  grace. 

*  "  In  forming  this  Alliance,  the  Presbyterian  Churches  do  not  mean  to  change 
their  fraternal  relations  to  other  Churches,  but  will  be  ready,  as  licretofore,  to 
join  with  them  in  Christian  fellowship,  and  in  advancing  the  cause  of  the  Re- 
deemer, on  the  general  principle,  maintained  and  taught  in  the  Reformed  Con- 
fessions, that  the  Church  of  God  on  earth,  thonr/h  composed  of  many  members,  is  one 
body  In  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  which  body  Christ  is  the  Supreme  Head, 
•and  the  Scriptures  alone  are  the  infallible  luw.^'  Const.  Presbyterian  Alliance;  Pre- 
amble. 


TIIE   CilURCH   A   DIVINE   GROWTH.  161 

The  truth  common  to  both  metaphors,  and  one  often  inculcated  else- 
where in  the  New  Testament,  is  that  the  Church  is  not  something  acci- 
dentally thrown  together,  or  spontaneously  produced,  or  shaped  by  no 
organizing  principles,  but  is  rather,  as  truly  as  a  tree  or  a  temple,  a 
structural  growth — the  living  issue  of  a  divine  process  of  development, 
according  to  laws  and  principles  divinely  prescribed.  The  Pauline 
description  of  the  Church  as  a  body,  the  Body  of  Christ,  with  parts 
and  members  each  in  place,  and  all  instinct  with  one  and  the  same 
gracious  life,  conveys  essentially  the  same  conception. 

It  is  specially  to  be  noted  that  the  Church  as  thus  contemplated,  is 
not  a  human,  but  a  divine  construction.  All  attempts  to  explain  the 
existence  and  growth  of  this  gracious  organism  on  natural  principles, 
after  the  manner  of  Gibbon,  are  signal  failures.  Human  elements 
have  indeed  been  blended  with  the  divine  at  many  points  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Church:  we  see  society,  general  and  civil,  philoso- 
phies of  various  types,  human  usages  and  sentiments,  and  multiplied 
other  earthly  influences,  flowing  in  to  affect  both  its  outward  manifes- 
tations and  its  inward  life.  But  the  Church  is  not  an  evolution  from 
such  germs;  they  have  affected,  but  they  did  not  create  it.  Higher 
forces  than  the  religious  sentiment  in  man,  or  the  impulse  to  fellow- 
ship which  this  sentiment  gives,  or  the  agency  of  fashions  or  tendencies 
in  life,  must  be  introduced  in  order  to  explain  either  its  existence  or 
its  growth.  God  is  as  truly  the  Creator  of  the  Church,  as  He  was  the 
Creator  of  nature:  back  of  forces,  laws,  germs,  atoms,  Ave  find  Him 
in  the  former  process  as  truly  as  in  the  latter.  His  fiat  made  the  worlds 
and  man:  His  fiat  gave  form  and  life  to  the  Church. 

As  a  diviue  rather  than  human  construction,  the  Church  through- 
out its  long  history  reveals  a  sublime  process  of  development,  stage 
after  stage,  dispensation  after  dispensation.  While  its  essential  prin- 
ciples never  change,  and  many  of  its  institutions  and  provisions  stand 
from  epoch  to  epoch  unaltered,  the  Church  is  still  in  many  other 
aspects  a  living,  growing  organism.  Even  the  revelation  on  Avhich  it 
reposes  as  a  sure  foundation,  rose  by  long  gradations  into  its  final  form : 
so  the  plan  of  redemption  required  many  centuries  of  preparation, 
before  it  could  announce  its  culminating  provisions.  In  like  manner, 
the  beliefs,  the  creeds  and  theologies,  of  the  Church  reveal  a  process 
of  both  intellectual  and  spiritual  development:  its  experience  and  its 
capacities  expand  with  the  ages :  and  its  mission  to  humanity  steadily 
widens  in  both  extent  and  significance.  The  history  of  other  iustitu- 
tions,  the  rise  and  progress  of  empires,  the  upspringing  even  of  the 
great  natural  faiths  of  the  world,  furnish  no  parallel  to  this  gracious 
development.  Nor  can  the  result  be  accounted  for  on  any  other  hy- 
pothesis than  that  God  i3  in  the  Church, — that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  ,its 


162  THE   CIIURCn   IN   HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

aiiiniatin«x  i^rinciple,  iind  that  its  growth  is  as  supernatural  as  was  its 
first  creation.  The  crowning  fact  is  that  the  God  of  providence  is  also 
here,  as  in  tlie  exjierience  of  the  individual  believer,  the  God  of  grace, 
Lord  and  Giver  of  life. 

Hence  arises  an  interesting  inquiry  respecting  what  may  be  termed 
the  laws,  the  regulative  principle;^,  tlie  divinely  ordained  methods,  of 
church  growth.  For,  while  we  may  not  know  just  how  the  divine  vi- 
tality flows  in  upon  this  spiritual  organism,  producing  such  vigor  and 
development  as  have  been  described,  we  may  reverently  study  those 
laws,  principles,  methods,  according  to  which  the  gracious  result  is 
made  to  appear.  In  such  directions  the  growth  of  the  Church  in  its 
totality,  or  the  growth  of  any  particular  church,  may  be  as  readily  ap- 
prehended as  the  pi'ocess  of  erecting  a  temple,  or  the  broad  and  grand 
outspreading  of  an  oak. 

VI.  The  Internal  Law  of  Church  Growth  :  Spiritual  Propa- 
gation.— What  is  contemplated  here  is  an  increase  and  enlargement 
from  within,  resembling  that  through  which  the  family  broadens  into 
the  tribe,  or  the  tribe  is  multii^lied  into  the  state  or  the  nation.  We 
may  find  a  primary  illustration  of  this  in  the  Christian  household, 
viewed  as  a  divinely  ordained  instrumentality  for  the  perpetuation  and 
difflisiou  of  religion.  God  has  in  all  dispensations  utilized  the  pious 
family  in  this  way,  availing  Himself  of  all  its  wondrous  potencies  as 
aids  in  preserving  and  multi2:)lying  among  men  the  influence  of  His 
truth  and  grace.  Three  times,  says  Luther,  did  Jehovah  introduce 
His  scheme  of  mercy  in  and  with  a  single  family, — as  if  one  such 
household,  thoroughly  sanctified  by  the  indwelling  presence  of  relig- 
ion, would  become  an  expanding  germ  through  whose  holy  vitalities 
all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed.  What  has  been  aptly 
described  as  the  outpropagating  power  of  the  Christian  stock,  ^  has 
thus  abundantly  verified  itself  at  all  periods  in  the  experience  of  the 
people  of  God.  By  parental  instruction  and  nurture,  by  the  careful 
training  of  children  in  divine  truth  and  law,  by  faithful  observance 
of  the  appointed  sacraments  and  ordinances  of  the  Gospel,  the  pious 
household  has  ever  proven  itself  thus  the  primary  agency  employed 
of  God  in  extending  the  sphere  and  influence  of  piety  in  the  world. 
It  is  indeed  in  this  view  of  the  spiritual  capabilities  embodied  in  the 
Christian  home,  that  we  find  one  of  the  supreme  reasons  for  that  or- 
dinance of  nature  which  setteth  the  solitary  in  families :  Ps.  68 :  6, 
Mai.  2:  15. 

On  a  broader  scale,  each  Christian  church  is  thus  a  family,  brought 

'  BusHNELL,  H.,  Christian  Nurture :  p.  195.  "God  is  from  the  first  looking  for  a 
godly  seed;  or,  what  is  nowise  different,  inserting  such  laws  of  population,  that 
piety  itself  shall  finally  overpopulate  the  world." 


GROWTH  BY   SPIRITUAL  PROPAGATION.  163 

together  by  spiritual  attractions,  and  welded  and  unified  through 
love,  in  order  that  it  may  become,  in  the  spiritual  sense,  a  propagativo 
agency  in  the  interest  of  religion, — an  agency  not  merely  preserving, 
as  if  it  were  an  inherited  estate,  the  grace  it  has  received,  but  also  by 
more  active  processes  diffusing  and  perpetuating  that  grace  among 
men.  In  the  economy  of  the  Gospel  it  seems  not  only  a  fixed,  but 
also  a  primary  principle,  that  vital  religion  should  be  spread  abroad 
through  this  unique  instrumentality.  To  this  end  such  a  sacrament  as 
infant  baptism  is  introduced  into  the  constitution  of  the  church,  Jp  be 
a  visible  emblem  and  pledge  of  spiritual  life  yet  to  be  impai-ted.  To 
this  end  various  methods  of  instruction  and  culture  are  provided,  in 
order  that  from  the  outset  youthful  minds  may  be  habituated,  within 
the  household  of  faith,  to  the  teachings  and  the  tempers  of  religion. 
To  this  end  the  children  of  believing  parents  are  even  counted  as  con- 
structively within  the  church  from  their  birth,  and  at  proper  age  are 
invited  to  contemplate  it  as  their  privilege  to  enter  into  full  commun- 
ion, by  participation  in  that  interior  sacrament  whose  ofiice  it  is  to  ex- 
press in  most  affecting  form  the  unity  of  each  and  all  believers  in  the 
one  family  of  Christ.  In  such  ways,  every  Christian  Church  is  thus 
set  upon  the  task  of  providing  from  age  to  age  for  its  own  permanence 
and  expansion,  by  the  training  within  its  own  hallowed  circle  of  suc- 
cessive generations  of  disciples.  It  was  chiefly  by  this  process  that 
the  Abrahamic  was  expanded  into  the  Jewish,  and  this  again  into  the 
Christian  Church.  It  was  largely  by  these  methods  that  the  church 
of  the  Pentecost  at  Jerusalem  has,  by  its  outpropagating  power,  be- 
come the  church  of  humanity, — represented  by  tens  of  thousands  of 
particular  churches,  inheriting  its  mission  and  spirit,  and  continuing 
the  same  gracious  development  in  many  lauds. 

On  a  scale  still  broader,  the  Church  of  Christ  on  the  earth  is  to  in- 
crease primarily  by  the  same  inward  process  to  the  end  of  time.  It 
is  worthy  of  note  that  the  Papal  Church  has  availed  itself  of  this  grand 
principle  of  development,  in  a  grosser  form :  steadily  aiming  to  per- 
petuate itself  not  so  much  by  aggression  upon  the  outer  world  of  un- 
belief, as  by  the  careful  infolding  within  its  ever  broadening  circle,  of 
each  new  generation  of  adherents, — claiming  as  its  own  every  child 
born  within  its  pale,  and  on  which  its  baptismal  consecration  has  been 
bestowed.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  the  churches  of  the  Reformation 
were  administered  largely  on  this  principle,  growing  and  expecting  to 
grow,  not  so  much  by  captures  from  the  world,  as  by  the  introduction 
of  each  successive  generation  of  children  into  the  experience  and  the 
inheritance  of  grace.  Many  of  the  Protestant  Confessions,  and  emi- 
nently the  Symbols  of  Westminster,  are  strongly  characterized  by  this 
principle :  and  so  far  as  the  communions  planted  on  such  Confessions 


164  TIIE  CHURCH   IN    HUMAN   SOCinTY. 

have  been  true  to  their  own  doetrinal  atlirmiiti()n.s,  they  liavc  enjoyed 
a  large  degree  of  growth  along  these  interior  lines.  May  it  not  he  re- 
garded a.'  one  of  the  most  propitious  faets  of  our  time  tliat  evaiigi'lical 
Protestantism,  of  every  variety,  is  becoming  so  extensively  ind)ued 
with  a  sense  of  the  values  of  this  inward  mode  of  development; — that 
the  hearts  of  the  fathers  arc  turning  so  tenderly  toward  the  children 
in  the  spiritual  household, — that  instrumentalities  and  methods  aiming 
at  the  instruction  and  conversion  of  the  young  are  so  remarkably 
midtiplying, — and  that  the  increase  of  particular  churches  from  year 
to  year  is  coming  to  be  measured  chicHy  by  the  fidelity  Avith  which 
they  thus  believe  in,  and  thus  employ  this  primary  law  of  church 
growth  ? 

The  biblical  basis  for  this  view  of  church  development  by  interior 
propagation,  may  be  briefly  stated.  Its  germs  clearly  lie  in  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Abrahamic  economy  and  covenant;  Gen.  18:  18-19. 
Illustrations  of  it  appear  at  various  points  in  the  Hebraic  dispensa- 
tion ;  Deut.  6  :  7,  Ps.  78 :  4-8.  Nor  did  it  belong  to  the  seclusive 
stages  or  eras  of  the  true  religion  only.  It  is  suggestive  that  our 
Lord  lays  down  in  so  many  ways  His  view  of  the  relations  of  children 
to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  of  their  right  to  the  recognition  and 
aid  of  Ilis  Church.  It  is  suggestive  also  that,  at  the  outset  of  the  new 
dispensation,  Peter  at  the  Pentecost  should  lay  such  stress  on  the  full- 
ness of  the  promise  both  to  believers  and  to  their  children ;  Acts  2 : 
39.  The  duties  of  parents  and  children  respectively  are  often  urged 
in  the  Pauline  Epistles,  Col.  3 :  20-21  :  and  especially  the  obligation 
of  devout  parents  to  train  up  their  offspring  in  the  nurture  and  admo- 
nition of  the  Lord :  Eph.  6  :  1-4.  So  also,  the  descriptions  of  the 
Church  as  a  family,  and  of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  house- 
hold and  the  home,  inculcate  forcibly  the  same  lesson, — that  the  largest 
and  richest  gi-owth  of  this  divine  organism,  will  be  enjoyed  when  this 
domestic  type  of  religion  is  most  fully  appreciated  and  put  into 
practice. 

A  single  remark  is  needful  here  respecting  the  specific  peril  involved 
in  the  application  of  this  law.  The  Christian  Church  is  not  national 
like  the  Jewish,  or  formal  and  ceremonial  like  the  Papal  communion. 
It  must  therefore  guard  itself  against  the  Jewish  and  Romish  error  of 
supposing  that  true  membership  in  the  Church  can  be  obtained  by 
birth  or  inheritance,  or  by  submission  to  outward  rites  or  the  observance 
of  Christian  oi-dinances.  Some  forms  of  Protestantism  have  fallen 
into  this  error  by  accepting,  under  certain  outward  conditions,  as 
actual  members  those  who  at  best  are  only  constructively  such, — mul- 
tiplying numbers  Avithout  sufficient  regard  for  regenerate  character  as 
the  only  adequate  qualification.      Regenerative  baptisms,  catechetical 


GROWTH   BY   SPIRITUAL   CONQUEST,  1G5 

admissions,  half-way  covenants,  and  other  like  processes,  may  increase 
the  numerical  aggregate  of  the  Church,  but  can  only  diminish  its  true 
strength,  its  spiritual  efficiency.  Such  methods  can  only  Judaize  our 
Christianity.  It  is  in  such  directions  that  this  primary  law  of  church 
development  confronts  its  gravest  peril:  formalism  does  its  most  de- 
structive work  at  just  this  point.  The  growth  we  are  contemplating 
must  be  spiritual  throughout,  or  it  will  prove  corrupting  and  fatal. 
And  the  only  adequate  protection  lies  in  loyal  adherence  to  the  scrip- 
tural princijjle  that  saving  faith  in  Christ,  is  the  sole,  universal,  essen- 
tial and  perpetual  condition  of  complete  church  membership, — as  truly 
in  the  child  nurtured  within  the  Christian  home  and  in  the  family  of 
grace,  as  in  the  adult  transgressor,  convicted  and  penitent  before  the 
Lord. 

VIL  The  External  Law  of  Church  Growth  :  Spiritual  Con- 
quest.— Here  we  pass  beyond  the  conception  of  the  Church  as  a 
divine  household,  growing  and  multiplying  from  within,  to  contemplate 
that  Church  rather  as  a  grand  missionary  agency,  sent  forth  to  conquer 
and  possess  the  world  of  humanity  for  Christ.  Among  the  primary 
Christian  beliefs  stands  the  belief  in  the  possibility  of  converting  the 
world  to  Christianity.  Tiiis  belief  rests  on  the  revealed  plan  and  will 
of  the  Father,  on  the  direct  commands  and  assurances  of  our  Lord, 
and  on  the  pledged  and  verified  gift  and  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
It  is  confirmed  l)y  what  we  have  seen  and  known  of  the  inherent  effi- 
ciencies of  Gospel  truth,  of  the  vital  power  of  religion  in  the  human 
heart,  of  the  potential  influences  exerted  by  the  Church,  and  of  the 
glorious  triumphs  already  w^on  by  spiritual  Christianity  among  the 
most  enlightened  nations  and  races  of  men.  To  reject  this  cardinal 
belief, — to  rest  rather  in  the  opinion  that  the  Christian  religion  is 
merely  local  or  temporal  in  its  range — a  type  of  faith  incapable  of 
being  carried  into  all  lands,  or  of  subduing  unto  Christ  the  entire 
world  of  humanity — would  be  equivalent  to  a  confession  that  the 
Gospel  itself  is  au  illusion,  most  disappointing  at  the  point  whfere  its 
capabilities  were  to  be  most  fully  tested,  and  where  its  promises  ap- 
peared to  be  brightest:  Ps.  72,  Isa.  40:  3-5,  Matt.  28:  18-20,  Acts 
3:  19-26. 

As  the  agent  of  God  in  the  execution  of  this  sublime  purpose,  the 
Church  becomes  of  necessity  a  missionary  organization,  endowed  and 
authorized  to  bear  this  Gospel  to  every  creature.  The  world  is  its 
field,  and  the  entire  race  are  the  objects  of  its  thought  and  labor. 
Into  all  the  earth  it  is  sent,  to  subdue  all  the  earth  unto  Christ,  John 
1:  9-10,  Rom.  1 :  16.  And  each  particular  church,  in  its  own  meas- 
ure, is  thus  a  missionary  body  as  well  as  a  consecrated  household, — 
designed  under  the  divine  economy  to  grow  as  well  by  drawing  into  its 


166  THE  CHURCH   IN   HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

hallowed  circle  those  who  are  Avithout,  as  by  nurturing  unto  holiness 
those  who  are  within  its  fold.  Every  such  church  has  a  specific  mis- 
sion to  humanity,— it  is  a  messenger  of  glad  tidings  to  every  simier, 
however  far  astray,  whom  it  can  by  any  means  invite  into  the  marriage 
supper  of  the  Lamb,  Luke  14:  15-24.  This  is  a  cardinal  obligation, 
Avrought  into  tlic  constitution  of  the  Christian  Church  at  large,  and 
of  each  particular  organization ;  and  any  deviation  from  it,  even  in 
thought,  is  infidelity  to  the  great  commission  given  to  His  earthly 
body  by  the  ascended  Head. 

It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  one,  sole,  universal  method 
of  fulfilling  that  commission,  must  be  found  in  the  instruction,  the 
persuasion,  the  conviction  and  conversion  of  individual  souls.  Not 
baptismal  rites,  or  formal  professions,  or  merely  external  memberships 
of  any  sort,  are  to  be  sought,  in  this  sublime  process  of  conquering  the 
world  for  our  Immanuel.  The  warnings  against  reliance  on  such 
methods, — against  attempting  to  secure  increase  rather  than  growth, 
by  enrollment  rather  than  through  regeneration,  stand  in  Scripture 
side  by  side  with  the  great  commission  itself.  The  conversion  of  souls 
is  the  one  and  only  process  by  which  the  Church  is  to  win  and  save 
lost  humanity.  What  does  conversion  involve?  It  involves  intelligent 
acquaintance  Avith  the  truth  and  grace  of  the  Gospel:  it  involves 
honest  recognition  of  personal  sin  and  guilt  and  need :  it  involves  true 
repentance  and  true  faith  in  the  divine  Christ  as  a  perfect  Redeemer. 
In  a  word,  conversion  is  nothing  else  than  the  instant,  hearty,  com- 
plete tui-ning  of  the  sinner,  under  divine  influence  and  with  the  aid 
of  the  Spirit,  away  from  all  sin,  unto  Christ  as  his  personal  Savior, 
with  absolute  recognition  of  His  claims,  and  Avith  irrevocable  purpose 
to  serve  Him,  cordially,  supremely  and  forever.  For  such  conversion 
there  can  be  in  the  scheme  of  grace  no  possible  substitute.  And  should 
the  Church  come  to  depend  on  any  merely  outward  adherence,  any 
formal  or  ceremonial  enrollment,  in  lieu  of  this  spiritual  experience, 
the  in^dtable  result  would  be  an  increase  which  bore  with  it  no  true 
enlargement, — an  organization  in  Avhich  ceremony  had  supplanted 
piety,  and  in  which  external  show  and  glitter  had  both  obscured  the 
proper  glory  of  iuAvard  holiness,  and  induced  indifference  to  all  effect- 
ual outward  activities. 

Growth  by  spiritual  conquest,  through  the  instruction  and  conver- 
sion of  the  outlying  world  of  humanity,  is  therefore  the  great  external 
law  or  method  in  all  church  development.  It  has  been  the  peculiar 
privilege  of  Protestantism,  even  from  the  period  of  the  Reformation, 
but  more  distinctly  in  these  later  times,  to  see  and  utilize  this  law,  as 
the  Church  of  Rome,  both  mediaeval  and  modern,  has  failed  to  do. 
Though  Protestant  communions  have  adhered  too  closely  to  the  papal 


ILLICIT  PROCESSES   OF   GEOWTH.  167 

theory  of  church  growth — though  the  formal  conception  of  the  Church 
as  an  external  society,  or  an  organization  coterminous  with  the  state, 
into  which  men  may  come  as  an  outward  privilege,  apart  from  the 
matter  of  conversion,  has  too  largely  pervaded  Protestant  thought,  yet 
in  the  main  evangelical  Protestantism  has  cordially  seen  and  accepted 
the  higher,  more  scriptural  view.  The  full  discovery  through  Luther 
of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  Avas  hardly  more  important 
than  this  consequent  discovery  of  the  sublime  commission  of  the  Church 
to  save  the  Avorld.  It  is  at  this  point  that  Protestant  have  shown  their 
vast  superiority  to  Papal  missions, — in  the  fact  that  they  have  aimed 
primarily,  not  at  church  enlargement  through  ceremonial  enrollments, 
but  at  the  conversion  and  ingathering  of  souls.  And  it  is  a  most 
suggestive  fact  that  those  Christian  bodies  which  have  seen  this  pri- 
mary obligation  most  distinctly,  and  have  given  themselves  most  zeal- 
ously to  its  fulfillment,  are  precisely  those  which  are  increasing  most 
rapidly,  and  whose  future  seems  brightest  with  spiritual  promise. 

It  may  be  anticipated  that  this  method  of  growth  will  reveal  its 
worth  more  and  more  distinctly  as  the  great  process  of  subduing  the 
world  unto  Christ  draws  nearer  to  its  culmination.  Thus  far,  the  task 
of  pushing  the  lines  of  Christian  occupation  into  hostile  territory,  has 
been  carried  on  with  incessant  diflficulty :  in  the  apprehension  of  many, 
the  result,  if  not  doubtful,  is  very  remote.  But  God  often  hurries  on 
His  gracious  processes,  especially  in  their  maturing  stages, — the  fields 
of  salvation  whiten  rapidly  at  the  last.  I^or  is  it  unlikely  that  a  time 
will  come  when,  instead  of  the  toilsome  efl^ort  of  the  present,  a  nation 
shall  be  born  as  in  a  day — when  an  impenitent  world  will  come  flock- 
ing into  the  Church,  as  doves  to  their  windows:  Isa.  60.  While  the 
household  of  faith  illustrates  inwardly  the  principle  of  family  develop- 
ment, and  at  a  steadily  increasing  ratio  adds  to  its  volume  through  the 
nurture  of  its  own  oflTspring,  we  may  expect  that  its  function  as  an 
army  of  conquest  will  exhibit  like  advance  in  efficiency,  and  in  the 
measure  of  success.  To  this  high  end  its  powers  and  resources  will  be 
more  and  more  fully  consecrated ;  its  methods  Avill  be  improved,  and 
its  influence  widened,  and  its  courage  increased,  until  its  adequacy  to 
the  task  will  be  no  longer  questioned.  Then,  with  startling  rapidity, 
the  great  harvest  of  humanity  will  ripen,  and  will  be  triumphantly 
gathered:  Rev.  5:   13. 

Vin.  Illicit  Processes  of  Church  Growth. — These  two  laws  or 
methods  of  church  growth,  by  spiritual  propagation  and  spiritual  con- 
quest, indicate  the  only  and  the  sufficient  modes  whereby  the  consum- 
mation of  the  Church  and  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  is  to  be  reached. 
Nothing  more  is  needful  than  the  diligent  application  of  these  divine 
methods,  in  their  multiplied  varieties  of  form  and  action,  to  secure  the 


1G8  THE   CHURCH    IN    HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

liuiil  euthroncincut  of  spiritual  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  mankind. 
It  remains  to  note  the  fact  that  illicit  processes  have  often  been  intro- 
duced in  api)arent  conjunction  with,  or  in  open  opposition  to,  these 
gracious  modes  of  growth.  Human  aml)itions,  uusanctified  zoal,  im- 
patience in  view  of  the  slow  developments  of  grace,  and  other  earthly 
influences,  are  constantly  breaking  in  at  many  points  ujion  this  divine 
unfolding.  A  glimpse  at  some  of  these  unauthorized  methods,  born 
of  the  wish  of  man  rather  than  of  the  revealed  will  of  God,  may  be 
of  service  here. 

Passing  by  the  obvious  mistakes  of  the  Papacy,  and  of  ritualistic 
Christianity  already  adverted  to,  Ave  shall  find  within  the  circle  of 
positive  Protestantism  a  series  of  such  illicit  processes,  against  which 
the  Church  of  Christ  should  ever  be  carefully  protected.  The  first 
of  these  is  the  substitution  of  false  and  narrowing  notions  of  the 
Church  itself  in  the  place  of  the  broad  biblical  conception, — especially 
the  regarding  of  the  Church  as  an  external,  material,  political  or  social 
organization,  rather  than  such  a  spiritual  organism  as  it  is  divinely  in- 
tended to  be.  A  second  error  may  be  seen  in  the  disposition  to  com- 
promise the  divine  foundations  of  doctrine  on  which  the  Church  is 
builded, — especially  at  the  points  where  such  doctrine  is  most  unpal- 
atable to  unbelieving  minds,  or  awakens  the  greatest  opposition  in 
human  society.  A  third  appears  in  the  inclination  to  lower  the  stand- 
ard or  the  terms  of  admission,  so  as  to  make  access  to  the  Church  less 
offensive  or  trying  to  those  who  are  not  thoroughly  surrendered  to  the 
claim  and  sway  of  Christ.  Kindred  to  this  is  the  still  more  serious 
error  of  reducing  the  standard  of  character  and  attainment  in  those 
who  are  already  members  within  this  divine  household, — such  as  allow- 
ing extensive  conformity  with  the  world,  failing  to  forbid  doubtful  or 
pernicious  practices,  loosening  the  avowed  bonds  of  discipleship  or 
fellowship,  or  accepting  as  sufficient  a  low  grade  of  spiritual  manhood 
or  womanhood.  Still  another  illicit  process  appears  in  the  disposition 
to  secure  growth  by  spectacular  arrangements,  such  as  attract  the  natu- 
ral interest  of  men  merely, — splendor  in  architecture,  pompous  cere- 
monies, official  dignities  and  display,  artistic  music,  and  other  like  in- 
strumentalities, whose  object  is  rather  to  draw  and  please,  than  to 
awaken  or  convict  or  edify.  These  may  be  taken  as  the  more  obvious 
illustrations  of  an  insidious  tendency  to  allure  the  mind  of  believers 
away  from  those  great  primal  conditions  of  growth  on  which  the 
Church  is  in  fact  dependent, — a  tendency  revealed  in  a  thousand 
ways,  but  fraught  in  every  form  with  irreparable  mischiefs. 

Is  it  not  manifest  that  the  introduction  of  such  methods  can,  at  the 
best,  only  interrupt  the  action  of  those  diviner  modes  of  growth  which 
have   been  already  considered?     Is  it   not  obvious   that  these  lower 


POSITION    OF   THE   CHURCH   IN   SOCIETY.  169 

modes,  though  they  may  apparently  succeed  in  filling  the  Church  with 
numbers,  will  tend  steadily  to  produce  just  such  a  pitiful  result  as  the 
church  in  Laodicea  presented?  Rich  and  increased  in  goods  and 
having  need  of  nothing,  in  an  external  sense,  that  church  was  to  the 
vision  of  faith,  wretched,  miserable,  poor,  blind,  naked  indeed ;  splendid 
in  its  visibilities,  but  weak  and  fruitless  and  decaying  at  the  heart. 
The  warning  to  Laodicea,  conveyed  by  John  (Rev.  3:  17),  is  of  uni- 
versal application.  •  Growth  unlawfully  secured  is  not  true  growth ;  it 
may  appear  as  increase,  expansion,  outward  success,  but  inwardly  it  is 
always  corrupting,  if  not  fatal.  The  teaching  of  the  Scripture  is 
clear,  solemn,  conclusive  here.  There  must  be  no  compromising  of  es- 
sential truth — there  must  be  no  abj  uring  of  the  vital  principle  of  con- 
version— there  must  be  no  lowering  of  the  Gospel  standard  of  holiness 
— there  must  be  no  surrender  at  any  point  of  any  thing  that  belongs 
to  the  Church  as  a  supernatural,  spiritual  organization,  planted  on 
Christ  as  the  sure  foundation,  and  vivified  and  moulded  throughout  by 
His  Spirit  and  His  grace.  There  may  be  value  in  wealth,  learning 
position — in  architecture  or  music  or  official  dignity,  as  mere  accesso- 
ries :  but  no  church  truly  grows  through  such  helps,  or  can  live  by 
them.  From  every  experiment  of  this  class,  thoughtful  minds  will  ever 
return  to  the  two  simple,  spiritual  methods  of  growth  divinely  indicated, 
to  find  in  these  rather  than  in  any  and  all  inventions  of  men,  the 
means  by  which  the  Church  of  Christ,  fitly  framed  together,  groweth 
unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord.  And  well  will  it  be  for  spiritual 
Protestantism,  and  especially  for  the  more  wealthy  and  cultured  and 
conspicuous  sections  of  that  Protestantism,  if  they  abjure  all  papal  or 
ritualistic  or  formal  dreams  of  advancement,  and  act  upon  the  high 
principle  that  the  Church  liveth  not  by  bread  alone,  but  by  the  word 
of  God,  the  spirit  of  God,  and  the  methods  of  God  only. 

IX.  The  Church  in  Human  Society:  General  View. — Thus 
far,  the  Church  has  been  contemplated  as  an  institution,  divinely 
planted,  developing  historically,  and  justifying  itself  by  its  perceived 
relations  to  the  nature  of  man  as  a  religious  being,  and  to  religion  as 
a  divine  force  in  human  life; — an  institution  having  certain  impersonal 
constituents  such  as  doctrines,  sacraments,  ordinances,  and  composed 
of  persons  sustaining  various  connections  with  it  as  members  and  as 
officers; — an  institution  planted  on  the  general  basis  of  government, 
and  taking  on  the  form  of  a  gracious  kingdom,  with  some  definite  type 
of  constitution  and  polity,  and  revealing  its  quality  as  such  in  ad- 
ministration and  in  discipline.  We  have  seen  the  Church,  separated 
widely  in  form  and  usage,  and  existing  in  a  state  of  division,  yet  hold- 
ing to  the  fundamental  conception  of  unity,  and  presenting  itself 
))efore  the  world  notwithstanding  such  diversities  as  in  essence  and 


170  THE   CHURCH   IN   HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

substance  One  Church  of  God  amoug  meu.  AVc  have  also  beheld  this 
one  Church  as  a  living  growth — the  vital  Body  of  Christ,  developing 
steadily  from  age  to  age,  under  certain  authoritative  laws,  by  certain 
fixed  processes,  toward  a  future  as  extensive  as  humanity — a  future  of 
gracious  and  glorious  supremacy  in  all  the  earth.  It  now  remains  to 
inquire  more  specifically,  in  brief,  respecting  the  position  of  the  Church 
in  human  society,  the  place  it  properly  holds  or  should  seek  to  hold  in 
human  life,  the  relations  it  sustains  or  should  sustain  to  the  other  great 
institutions  and  interests  of  men. 

Two  false  impressions  should  be  noted  at  the  outset.  On  one  side, 
it  is  affirmed  that  the  Church  is  an  artificial  and  abnormal  institute  in 
the  world — the  creation  of  priests  or  enthusiasts,  or  at  best  the  archi- 
tectural efflorescence  of  a  type  of  religion,  which  is  living  out  its  brief 
day  in  the  career  of  humanity,  and  which,  as  it  is  outgrown  and  dies 
out  of  life,  will  carry  the  Church  with  it  into  decay  and  oblivion.  It 
is  true,  it  is  said,  that  Christianity  differs  from  the  other  natural  faiths, 
in  the  fact  that,  wherever  it  goes,  it  expresses  or  embodies  itself  in 
this  peculiar  institution :  but  when  this  faith  declines,  as  other  faiths 
have  declined  in  history,  the  institution  will  crumble  and  perish  with  it. 
The  relations  of  the  Church  to  human  society  are  therefore  but  casual, 
temporary,  unimportant. — On  another  side,  the  Church  is  viewed  as 
an  institution  wholly  divine  in  structure,  aiming  at  ends  peculiar  to 
itself,  planted  in  the  world  but  in  no  sense  of  the  world — a  temporary 
tabernacle  for  the  ingathering  of  the  elect,  and  a  place  wherein  re- 
ligion may  be  sheltered  from  the  influences  of  life,  blit  standing  in  no 
divinely  ordered  relationship  to  humanity  as  a  whole,  or  to  human  so- 
ciety as  a  surrounding  element.  In  the  former  view,  the  Church  is 
simply  a  temporary  construction  or  institute  framed  by  the  religious 
nature :  in  this  it  is  an  organization  Avholly  supernatural  in  structure 
and  mission — as  widely  separate  from  ordinary  life  or  experience,  as 
was  that  mystical  sheet  which  Peter  beheld  in  sacred  vision  only. 

Clearly  such  is  far  from  being  the  biblical  conception.  While  the 
Church  is  not  of  the  world  as  to  its  origin,  its  faith,  its  spirit  and  ten- 
dency— while  in  such  aspects  it  is  as  widely  separated  from  all  other 
institutions  and  interests  and  movements  of  our  fallen  humanity  as  if 
it  were  organized  on  another  planet,  yet  it  is  as  truly  sent  into  the 
world  as  Avere  the  Apostles  for  whom  the  Savior  prayed  before  His 
passion — as  was  that  Savior  Himself.  It  has  a  mission,  as  distinctively 
as  they  severally  had  a  mission:  it  inherits  their  mission,  and  finds  one 
of  the  primal  reasons  for  its  existence  in  the  gracious  relations  which 
it  is  thus  called  to  sustain  to  the  world  of  humanity.  The  Church 
is  in  human  society  in  order  that  it  may  instruct,  awaken,  spiritualize, 
regenerate  society,  in  virtue  of  its  own  diviner  life.    While  it  is  at  many 


MISSION   OF   THE  CHUECH  TO  SOCIETY.  171 

points  affected,  sometimes  disastrously,  by  these  social  connections 
which  its  great  commission  constrains  it  to  assume — while  human  so- 
ciety reacts  upon  it  at  a  thousand  points,  shaping  its  organization,  in- 
fluencing its  teaching,  determining  even  the  quality  and  measure  of 
its  religious  vitalities,  still  the  Church  is  the  embodied  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  world — the  representative  of  His  grace,  and  His  chief 
agent  in  the  restoration  of  lost  men  to  Himself.  Considered  apart  from 
this  redemptive  mission,  which  is  consequent  upon  and  analogous  to 
the  mediatorial  mission  of  our  Lord,  the  Church  would  become  as 
great  an  enigma  to  us,  as  a  vessel  would  be  to  one  who  had  never 
known  Avhat  the  ocean  is.  If  we  comprehend  what  human  society  is, 
in  its  varied  institutions  and  laws  and  interests — in  its  grand  control- 
ling forces  and  tendencies,  and  especially  in  its  myriad  phases  of  sin 
and  need,  we  may  also  knoAv  why  God  created,  endowed,  and  commis- 
sioned His  Church  as  He  did ;  and  why  He  set  it  up  in  the  world,  to 
stand  through  all  the  ages,  as  the  one  indestructible  thing,  the  one 
dominating  institution,  in  human  life. 

It  is  true  that  we  at  first  behold  the  Churclf  secluded  within  the 
family,  hidden  as  a  treasure  Avithin  the  tribe,  holden  strictly  within  the 
domain  of  a  single  nation,  as  if  it  sustained  no  such  ecumenical  of- 
fice or  relations.  But  the  reasons  for  such  preparatory  discipline 
through  seclusion  have  already  been  noted ;  the  seclusion  itself  was  a 
prophecy  of  the  universality  in  connection  and  mission,  that  was  to 
follow  it.  Even  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  in  the  Messianic  Psalms, 
and  in  the  culminating  predictions  of  Isaiah  and  Daniel,  this  world- 
wide relationship  was  clearly  foretold.  The  stone  cut  without  hands  out 
of  the  mountain  was  to  roll  on  irresistibly,  until  it  had  crushed  down 
all  oppositions;  the  kingdom  which  Daniel  foresaw,  established  in 
narrowness  and  privacy,  Avas  to  overthroAV  all  hostile  dominions,  and 
to  rule  in  majesty  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun.  In  the 
New  Testament,  Avhile  our  Lord  and  the  apostles  were  first  of  all  en- , 
gaged  in  planting  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  human  hearts,  and  in  es- 
tablishing Christian  churches  wherever  converts  could  be  found,  stiU 
Christ  Himself  clearly  contemplated  a  time  when  the  groAving  mustard 
seed  should  fill  the  lands  Avith  its  verdure,  and  the  apostles  looked  for- 
Avard  to  a  day  when  Jew  and  Gentile,  men  of  all  nations  and  all  na- 
tions of  men,  should  be  folded  Avithin  the  circle  of  this  outspreading, 
beneficent  faith. 

X.  The  Church  and  Human  Sin. — Contemplating  this  relation- 
ship of  the  Church  to  human  society,  first  in  more  generic,  than  in 
more  specific  forms,  aa'c  are  confronted  at  the  outset  by  that  which 
constitutes  the  central  feature  in  the  position  of  the  Church  in  the 
world — its  mission  to  human  sin. — Here,  as  at  many  other  points  in  the 


172  Tin:  ciiuRcn  in  iitoian  society. 

Christian  scheme  of  doctrine,  the  one  C'hurch  is  sadly  divided  in  its 
faith  and  teacliing ;  and  one  of  the  sorest  hindrances  to  its  success  in 
this  universal  mission  is  revealed  in  such  divisions.  Yet  on  many  of 
the  essential  elements  in  the  scriptural  doctrine  of  sin,  the  Church  is 
already  substantially  one.  That  sin  exists  in  man,  and  exists  univer- 
sally,— that  it  is  more  than  a  mere  conflict  between  matter  and  spirit, 
or  between  the  body  and  the  soul,  and  more  than  a  trivial  incident  or 
accident  in  human  experience, — that  it  lies  deeper  than  action,  and  in 
some  sense  possesses  the  nature,  and  flows  in  a  turbid  current  through 
the  entire  life, — that  it  involves  responsibility  at  every  stage  in  its 
dark  development,  and  brings  guilt  and  condemnation,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  spiritual  and  even  everlasting  death,  on  every  sinning  soul; 
these  are  propositions  in  which  evangelical  churches  may  be  said  to  be 
essentially  agreed.  It  is  also  a  fact  of  great  significance,  that  the  pro- 
foundest  movements  of  Christian  thought  in  our  time  are  toward 
closer  unity  around  the  more  fundamental  elements  in  this  doctrine ; 
and  it  may  be  anticipated  that,  as  the  Church  thus  reaches  deeper 
agreement  in  conviction,  and  consequently  in  feeling,  its  sublime 
mission  to  the  sin  of  the  world  will  become  more  grandly  significant, 
more  transcendently  glorious. 

As  sin  is  universal,  this  mission  is  a  mission  to  humanity;  and  as 
sin  is  multiplex  in  manifestation  and  profound  in  influence,  revealing 
itself  in  ten  thousand  subtle  ways  in  the  individual  life,  and  permeat- 
ing and  controlling  society  in  every  moral  aspect,  this  restorative  mis- 
sion must  assume  like  variety,  penetrativeness,  efficiency.  As  the 
representative  of  Christ  in  the  world,  it  is  the  high  task  of  the  Church 
to  take  the  sin  of  the  world  in  its  heart,  as  did  the  Savior  Himself; 
and  to  minister  to  it  in  all  its  deformities  and  corruptions,  in  His 
spirit,  and  by  the  complex  methods  which  His  Gosj^el  supplies.  Here 
we  are  led  at  once  to  contemplate  the  multiplicity  of  this  mission,  and 
the  vastness  as  well  as  variety  of  the  services  which  the  Church  is 
called,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  to  render  to  a  sinful  world.  Human 
methods  of  improvement  which  contemplate  only  the  cultivation  of 
some  single  virtue,  specific  reforms  which  aim  at  the  correction  of 
some  single  vice,  philanthropic  movements  looking  toward  the  advance- 
ment of  mankind  in  some  particular  social  interest,  grow  trivial  in 
comparison  Avith  the  gigantic  task  to  which  the  Church  of  God  ad- 
dresses itself.  In  like  manner  do  the  organizations  and  machineries  of 
men,  designed  to  secure  such  ends  through  joint  endeavor,  fade  into 
insignificance  when  compared  with  that  array  of  resources,  agencies, 
powers,  which  are  divinely  concentrated  in  the  Christian  Church.  And 
surely  no  commission  that  man  could  obtain  from  his  own  convictions, 
or  from  the  combined  sympathies  of  his  fellows,  can  equal  in  impres- 


MINISTRIES   OF  THE   CHURCH   TO"  SIN,  173 

siveness  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  to  bear  His  saving  message  to 
every  creature; — as  no  fervors  of  benevolence,  no  inspirations  of  just 
wrath  against  evil,  can  equal  the  gracious  potencies  that  flow  into  the 
soul  of  the  commissioned  Church,  through  the  indwelling  Spirit  of 
God. 

The  temper  in  which  this  redemptive  mission  is  to  be  prosecuted,  is 
sufficiently  indicated  in  the  career  of  Him  from  whom  the  commission 
came.  On  the  one  side,  the  Church  of  Clirist  is  to  set  itself  in  irre- 
vocabloi  o])})osition  to  sin,  in  every  form,  of  every  grade.  Not  only  is 
it  to  grant  no  countenance  to  sin  within  its  own  circle :  it  is  to  be  the 
unyielding  foe  of  sin  in  human  life.  History  reveals  the  pregnant 
fact,  that  the  times  of  signal  peril  to  the  Church — the  times  when  its 
work  and  influence  among  men  were  least  productive,  and  when  cor- 
ruption most  easily  crept  like  miasma  into  the  secret  sources  and 
currents  of  its  own  life,  were  those  in  which  low  views  of  sin,  compro- 
mises with  sin,  wicked  yielding  to  sin,  were  widely  prevalent.  On  the 
contrary,  it  has  always  been  the  fact  that  deepened  convictions  concern- 
ing sin,  both  within  the  Church  and  without,  and  especially  an  unswerv- 
ing hatred  of  all  sin  in  the  world,  have  invariably  been  the  harbinger  of 
augmented  power,  of  more  glorious  fruitage.  The  Avickcd  world  itself 
despises  a  compromising,  but  fears  and  admires,  and  even  yields  to,  a 
resolute  and  holy  Church.  The  testimony  of  Christianity  against  sin 
is  never  so  powerful  as  when  it  finds  expression  through  the  Church : 
compared  with  its  deep,  reverberating  protests,  the  eloquence  of  the 
most  effective  preacher,  the  earnest  endeavor  of  the  private  believer, 
seem  insignificant. 

On  the  other  side,  the  temper  of  the  Church  must  ever  be  one  of 
Christlike  love.  Righteous  hostility  to  sin  and  tender  compassion  for 
the  sinner  are  convertible  terms  in  Christian  experience.  The  happy 
paradox  reveals  itself  supremely  in  the  heart  and  life  of  our  Lord 
Himself:  it  is  verified  abundantly  in  apostolic  instructions  and  exam- 
ple. And  in  this  respect,  as  in  the  former,  it  is  the  peculiar  function 
of  this  spiritual  organization  to  express  to  the  world  the  pitying  com- 
passion of  the  Father,  the  redemptive  mercy  of  the  Son,  the  consum- 
mating grace  of  the  Spirit.  For,  nothing  but  the  revelation  of  this 
triune  Love  can  ever  draw  humanity  away  from  sin,  into  the  true  life 
of  responsive  love  and  holiness.  A  Church  itself  unmoved  by  such 
transcendent  emotions,  is  a  Church  without  power :  it  may  hold  ortho- 
dox views  respecting  sin,  and  may  be  stirred  up  to  resistance  to  sin, 
but  it  can  not  overcome  sin.  Hence  the  value  of  a  ministry  suffused 
in  all  its  purpose  and  efl!brt  with  holy  love:  hence  the  value  ol 
churches,  organized  under  the  inspirations  of  brotherhood,  and  filled 
with  tender  yearnings  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of   all  within  their 


174  THE  CHURCH  ix  human  society. 

reach:  hence  the  value  of  benevolent  institutions,  evangelical  char- 
ities, beneficent  movements  in  society,  designed  to  express  church  feel- 
ing, and  to  win  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  into  church  fellow- 
ship. Until  the  world  is  thus  made  to  see  and  believe  that  the  Church 
of  God  is  a  loving  Church, — that  while  it  hates  and  resists  the  sin,  it 
ever  pities  and  tries  to  help  the  sinner,  the  great  nu.«sion  of  the 
Church  as  a  savior  of  humanity  from  sin,  must  remain  essentially  un- 
fulfilled. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  most  generic  relation  of  the  Christian  Church 
to  humanity — a  relation  resting  on  the  demonstrated  basis  of  universal 
sin,  and  on  the  primal  function  of  the  Church  as  the  commissioned 
agent  of  God  in  the  deliverance  of  humanity  from  sin.  'No  narrower 
view  of  its  commission, — contemplating  that  commission  as  elective 
and  partial  rather  than  universal,  or  regarding  it  as  confined  to  t'csti- 
mony  against  sin,  or  to  witnessing  against  the  Avorld  as  evil, — can  be 
admitted  here.  Christ  for  the  world,  and  the  world  for  Christ,  is  rather 
at  once  the  broad  and  tender  teaching  of  the  Word,  and  the  inspiring 
motto  of  all  who  truly  apprehend  the  "Gospel. 

XI.  Tim  Church  and  Hutvian  Institutions:  Church  and 
State. — Two  coordinate  institutions,  both  of  divine  appointment  in 
their  respective  spheres,  both  universal  as  mankind  and  alike  essential 
to  the  well-being  of  men,  stand  side  by  side  with  the  Christian  Church, 
wherever  it  is  established, — the  Family  and  the  State.  What  are  the 
relations  of  the  Church,  and  what  is  its  mission,  to  these  two  primor- 
dial institutions  ? 

The  relations  of  the  Church  to  the  Family  have  already  l)een  noted 
in  substance.  We  have  seen  how  large  a  place  the  sanctified  house- 
hold has  always  held  in  the  developing  economy  of  redemption,  and 
what  j)eculiar  ties  forever  bind  in  one  the  Christian  Home  and  the 
Christian  Church.  We  have  noted  the  tender  responsibilities  sus- 
tained by  the  household  of  faith  toward  the  children  of  believers,  and 
recognized  the  gracious  and  l^eautiful  ministries  due  from  the  larger 
to  this  smaller  family  circle,  in  virtue  of  the  divine  covenant  with 
both.  It  remains  only  to  note  the  obligation  of  the  Church  of  God 
to  emphasize  the  biblical  doctrine  of  the  family,  and  to  protect  this 
divine  institution  against  the  insidious  influences  combining  on  many 
sides  to  corrupt  and  destroy  it.  The  Church  is  bound  to  enforce  by 
every  available  method  the  scriptural  doctrine,  even  against  civil 
usages,  in  the  matter  of  divorte.  ^  It  is  bound  also  to  utter  its  most 
solemn  condemnation  upon  all  sins  against  the  purity,  the  peaceful- 
ness,  the  holy  unity  of  the  household,  contemplated  as  first  among  the 
beneficent  gifts  of  God  to  men.      It  is  bound,  further,  to  bring  the 

^  Woolsey:  Divorce  and  Divorce  Legislation,     Hovey,  A.,  Scriptural  Law,  etc. 


THE   CHURCH   AND   THE   STATE.  175 

light  and  the  sanctifying  grace  of  the  Gospel  into  every  home  which 
it  can  penetrate,  and  to  do  whatever  it  may  toward  making  every  such 
home  itself  a  veritable  house  of  God — a  true  gate  of  heaven  to  all 
who  dwell  beneath  its  roof.  For  the  Christianized  Home  is  at  once 
the  most  impressive  witness  to  the  saving  efficacy  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  most  effective  adjunct  which  spiritual  Christianity  can  command, 
in  the  discharge  of  its  gracious  mission  to  mankind. 

The  question  respecting  the  relations  of  the  Church  to  the  State  is 
much  more  complex,  and  in  many  aspects  more  difficult.  A  few  sug- 
gestions pointing  towards  a  comprehensive  answer,  may  here  be  intro- 
duced; the  answer  itself  would  require  an  extensive  survey  of  the- 
ories, and  a  complicated  discussion  of  the  nature  and  functions  of 
each  of  these  closely  affiliated  and  related,  yet  widely  differing  institu- 
tions. ^  The  peculiar  blending  of  the  church,  first  with  the  family, 
then  with  the  tribe  and  the  nation,  prior  to  the  Christian  dispensjition, 
and  later  the  progressive  unifying  of  the  Church  with  the  Roman 
State  under  the  Papacy,  and  still  later  the  varieties  of  combination  es- 
tablished between  the  Church  and  the  civil  powers  in  Europe,  Prot- 
estant as  well  as  Papal,  at  and  after  the  Reformation,  have  already 
been  briefly  mentioned.  We  have  also  noted  certain  evil  influences 
of  such  combinations  upon  the  spiritual  vigor  of  the  Church,  upon  its 
doctrine  of  membership  and  its-conception  of  religious  character,  and 
upon  its  voluntary  and  missionary  zeal,  as  a  regenerative  force  in 
human  life.  History  suggests,  if  it  does  not  clearly  prove,  the  con- 
clusion that  the  greatest  mistake  of  Protestantism  after  the  Reforma- 
tion appears  in  its  illusive  theories  respecting  the  union  of  Church  and 
State,  and  in  the  embarrassing  and  weakening  complications  which 
everywhere  attended  the  attempts  to  turn  such  theories  into  practice. 
These  attempts  have,  in  numberless  instances,  resulted  in  strenuous 
conflicts  between  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers,  in  which  the  state 
has  sometimes  been  prostrated  at  the  feet  of  an  assuming  church,  and  the 
church  has  more  often  been  constrained  to  submit  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  an  ambitious  and  unsanctified  state.  They  have  also  borne  their 
natural  fruitage  in  many  intestinal  disturbances  within  the  household 
of  faith,  and  in  division  after  division  among  those  who  on  all  other 
questions  were  essentially  one  in  belief  and  purpose.  Nor  is  there  a 
more  painful  chapter  in  the  history  of  modern  Christianity  than  that 
which  describes  the  jealousies,  the  antagonisms,  the  scheming  of  differ- 


'  References :  Palmer,  Church  af  Christ,  Part  V ;  Cunningham,  Church  Princi- 
ples, Chap.  VI-VIII;  Hodge,  Cliurch  Polity,  Chap.  VII;  Baird.  R.,  Religion  in 
America;  Thompson,  J.  F., Church  and  State  in  the  United  States :  Spear,  S.  T.,  Re- 
ligion and  the  State.  Also  Hooker,  Eccl.  Polity,  Book  VIII,,  Chap.  IV,  and  Wah- 
BURTON,  Works,  Alliance  of  Church  and  State. 


176  THE   CIIUKCn   IN   HUMAN   SOCIETY. 

ent  Protestant  bodies  to  secure  for  themselves  the  endorsement  and  the 
patronage  of  civil  power.  ^ 

Dorner  (II :  469)  describes  what  he  regards  as  a  better  tendency,  in 
the  recent  effort  in  Germany,  "  to  separate  the  law  of  the  Protestant 
Church  from  canon  law,  by  the  development  and  realization  of  Prot- 
estant ideas  concerning  the  form  and  government  of  the  Chun^h  in  its 
intrinsic  independence  of  the  state."     Still  he  maintains  that  thi.^)  must 
be  accum])li.she(l  "  in  unison  with  the  spirit  of  a  national  or  congrega- 
tional church."     But  the  question  at  once  arises  wliether  the  Church 
can  assert  such  intrinsic  independence,  and  develop  without  hindrance 
its  own  free   conceptions   of  law,  while   retaining   the  illusion  of  a 
national    organization — while  resting   for  sup^iort  on  civil  i>atronage, 
and  looking  to  the  state  for  endorsement  and  j)osition.     The  only  broad 
and  permanent  answer  to  this  question,  must  be  found  ultimately  in 
the  abandonment  of  all  direct  state  connection.      The  only  law  with 
which  the  Church  of  Christ  has  any  occasion  to  conform  itself,  is  His 
law  given  in  His  own  Word,  and  standing  forth  in  entire  independence 
of  political  endorsement.     And  the  only  support  on  whi(di  the  Church 
can  rely,  or  has  any  clear  right  to  rely,  is  the  free  and  loving  sujiport 
of  those  who  voluntarily  seek  its  shelter,  and  enjoy  the  life  and  fellow- 
ship which  it  embodies.      Civil  establishments,  in  which  the  bestow- 
ment  of  patronage  carries  necessarily  Avith  it  a  correlative  right  to  con- 
trol, have  proven  in  the  past,  and  can   prove  in  the  future,  only  a 
hindrance    to   a  spiritual,   aggressive  Protestantism.     It   is  certainly 
both  a  significant  and  a  hopeful  fact,  that  this  view  is  coming  to  be 
recognized  by  more  thoughtful  leaders  in  Church  and  State,  and  that 
the  problem  of  disestablishment  is  already  urging  itself  upon  European 
Protestantism  as  one  of  the  vital  issues  in  a  rapidly  advancing  future. 
Such  formal  separation  Avould  by  no  means  result  in  setting  these 
two  divine  institutions  in  an  attitude  of  entire  independence  or  isolation. 
For,  while  their  spheres  are  almost  wholly  separate,  and  while  the 
heavenly  kingdom  has  laws,  purposes,  a  spirit  and  life,  with  which 
the  earthly  kingdom  may  not  intermeddle,  yet  as  alike  divine  in  ori- 
gin, both  institutions  are  sacredly  pledged  to  each  other  in  the  support 
of  those  great  interests  of  humanity  which  they  are  alike  ordained  of 
God  to  subserve.     The  Church  on  the  one  side  is  bound  to  uphold  just 
law,  to  sustain  constituted  authority,  to  throw  the  whole  weight  of  its 
influence  in  support  of  right  government.     It  can  not  justly  assume 
an  attitude  of  indifference  in  the  presence  of  threatened  anarchy :  it 
can  not  refuse  to  stand  by  the  State,  in  the  exercise  of  its  legitimate 


'See  the  liistories  of  the  conflicts  and  disruptions  in  British  rresbyterianism : 
Ne.vl,  Stoughton,  McCrie,  Hetheringtox,  and  others.  Doener,  Hist.  Prot. 
Theology,  II:  50 — 60;  Coleridge,  Constitution  of  Church  and  State. 


TnE   CHURCH   AND   THE   INTELLECTUAL   LIFE.  177 

powers.  To  do  otherwise,  would  not  only  be  a  consent  to  the  reckless 
imperilling-  of  the  interests  of  human  society;  it  would  also  involve 
dangerous  exposure  of  the  Church  itself,  since  pure  Christianity  thrives 
only  or  thrives  best  in  times  of  civil  peace.  The  value  of  this  posi- 
tion is  abundantly  attested  by  the  history  of  modern  governments 
wherever  such  Christianity  prevails.  At  this  moment,  the  strongest 
influence  anywhere  upholding  rightful  and  beneficent  government,  is 
the  influence  flowing  silently  but  pervasively  forth  from  the  Christian 
Church:  and  this  influence,  it  may  be  noted,  is  most  powerful  and 
most  effectual  in  those  lands  where  the  Church  exists  in  comj^letest 
independence  of  the  civil  power. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  services  of  vast  significance  which  the 
State  may  render,  and  is  bound  to  render,  to  the  Church.  Regarding 
that  Church  as  a  beneficent  organization  merely,  founded  in  an  un* 
selfish  temper  for  the  inculcation  of  sound  morals  and  the  enforcement 
of  mutual  duties  among  men,  the  State  may  properly  grant  it  those 
immunities  and  privileges  which  all  wise  governments  accede  to  char- 
itable associations  and  enterprises.  Viewing  the  Church  as  a  vast 
educational  agency  only,  accumulating  immense  resources  and  instru- 
mentalities for  the  instruction  of  those  Avho  are  to  be  citizens,  the 
State  should  openly  protect  and  foster  this  agency,  so  far  as  this  is 
consistent  with  its  own  relations  to  the  human  society  for  Avhose  wel- 
fare the  Church  is  thus  laboring.  And  in  the  discharge  of  its  more 
distinctive  mission  to  the  spiritual  life  in  man,  the  Church  may  legiti- 
mately ask  for  the  protecting  sympathy  of  the  State,  so  far  as  this 
may  insure  its  peaceable  assembling  and  fellowship,  and  the  support  of 
law  in  sustaining  before  men  its  religious  jiosition  and  ofiice.  Civil 
government  can  not  regard  Christianity  and  atheism  with  equal  favor, 
as  is  sometimes  claimed,  since  Christianity  is  the  sure  ally  of  good 
government,  while  atheism  tends  always  to  anarchy,  and  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  human  society.  In  the  light  of  these  general  propositions,  many 
subordinate  questions,  such  as  the  obligation  of  oaths,  the  enforcement 
of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  the  repression  of  profanity,  the  taxation  of 
church  property,  the  civil  support  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  may  be 
at  least  approximately  settled.  ^ 

XII.  The  Church  and  Education:  Church  and  Culture. — Ac 
the  Church  sustains  direct  relations  to  the  other  two  primordial  insti- 
tutions of  humanity,  the  family  and  the  state,  so  it  carries  on  two 
specific  and  adjunctive  ministries  to  humanity  itself,  in  conjunction 

\Scc  Lt'TiiARDT,  Moral  Truths  of  Clirit!tianiti/,  Lecture  vii,  and  notes,  for  valu- 
able suggestions  respecting  the  moral  ties  binding  the  State  and  Church  in  unity, 
and  the  reciprocal  duties  of  the  two  institutions.  Whewell,  Elements  of  Moral- 
ity :  Book  V  :  Ch.  xvi-xvii. 


178  THE   CIIUECII    IN    IIU.MAX   SOCIETY. 

with  its  chief  central  ministration  to  the  soul.  These  adjunctive 
ministries  may  be  broadly  classified  as  the  intellectual  and  the  ethical: 
to  each  of  these  some  passing  reference  should  be  made. 

The  dogma  that  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion,  attributed  to 
an  eminent  Koman  pontiff,  is  entirely  at  variance  with  both  the  genius 
and  the  history  of  the  Christian  religion.  Looking  back  upon  the  in- 
tellectual life,  even  of  the  Hebrew,  we  discover  at  once  the  suggestive 
fact  that  the  Church,  with  its  laws,  its  ordinances,  its  constituted 
teachers,  its  household  training,  was  in  reality  the  divinely  ordained 
school  in  which  the  Israelitic  mind  gained  that  remarkable  develop- 
ment which  gave  it,  even  on  natural  grounds,  such  liX'ominence  in 
ancient  history.  If  we  contemplate  Christianity  as  an  educating 
force — if  we  consider  the  Church  of  Christ  a.s  a  school,  in  which 
knowledge  is  to  be  conveyed,  the  intellect  of  men  quickened,  the  ca- 
pacity to  apprehend  and  utilize  all  other  truth  developed  into  effective 
vigor,  Ave  see  the  same  lesson  inculcated  in  far  higher,  grander  form. 
Thus,  when  Guizot  styles  the  Reformation  a  great  insurrection  of 
human  intelligence,^  he  simply  expresses  a  sublime  fact  respecting  the 
effective  ministries  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Church,  even  from  the 
twelfth  century  onward,  through  the  entire  period  of  the  revival  of 
learning,  to  the  awakened  mind  of  Euroj^e.  For  it  was  not  an  intelli- 
gence lying  back  of  Christianity  and  sustaining  it,  but  an  intelligence 
which  Christianity  had  itself  brought  into  activity,  which  in  that  su- 
pi'eme  hour  rose  up  against  the  attempts  even  of  a  tyrannizing  Church 
to  repress  free  thought,  and  in  a  mighty  insurrection  gave  to  the  world 
at  once  a  purer  purpose  and  a  broadened  mind.  80  the  world  owes 
first  to  Luther,  then  to  Calvin,  the  suggestion  of  the  common  school; 
but  both  Calvin  and  Luther  derived  the  conception  from  their  own 
Christianized  intelligence,  and  from  the  doctrine  and  usage  of  the 
Church  long  before  the  Reformation,  and  the  schools  which  they 
planted  stood  always,  by  a  natural  law,  in  an  adjunctive  relation  to 
the  churches  which  they  organized. 

Nor  is  this  connection  between  the  Church  and  the  intellectual  life 
in  man  limited  to  a  specific  era  such  as  the  sixteenth  century,  or 
to  the  development  of  mind  which  accompanied  that  great  spiritual 
and  social  as  well  as  mental  insurrection,  which  we  style  the  Refor- 
mation. Wherever  Protestantism  in  later  times  has  gone,  it  has 
carried  with  it  like  improvement  in  the  intellectual,  no  less  than  the 
religious  experience  of  mankind.  Using  the  term,  education,  in  the 
broadest  sense,  as  the  intelligent  development  of  the  community  rather 
than  the  technical  training  of  a  class,  we  see  it  originating  largely  in 
the  Christian  Church,  or  at  least  receiving  from  the  Church  its  chief 

^History  of  Civilization  in  Europe,  Lect.  xii  :  alsu  elsewhere. 


RELATIONS    OF   THE   CHURCH   TO    EDUCATION,  '  179 

protection  and  iuvigoration.  If  it  be  not  literally  true  that  where 
there  are  no  churches,  there  are  no  schools,  it  still  is  true  that  the 
school  and  the  church  prosper  most  when  standing  side  by  side, — the 
church  planting  and  endowing  and  ntilizing  the  school,  and  in  turn 
receiving  from  the  school  that  strengthened  support  which  an  improved 
intellectual  life  supplies  to  rational  faith.  Many  specific  questions 
arise  at  this  point, — such  as  the  relation  between  the  religious  and  the 
secular  elements  in  education,  the  respective  provinces  of  the  church 
and  the  state,  the  place  of  the  Bible  and  of  religions  teaching  in  the 
school — which  may  be  solved  in  the  light  of  the  general  principle  just 
defined. — In  respect  to  the  higher  forms  of  education,  the  law  thus 
stated  receives  still  finer  illustration.  It  is  a  suggestive  fact  of  history 
that,  as  it  was  the  Church  that  preserved  classical  learning  during  the 
long  medieval  obscuration,  so  it  was  the  Church  which  finally  gave 
back  the  treasure  it  had  held  in  trust,  and  which  laid  the  foundations 
of  those  great  universities  where  art  and  learning  and  science  have 
found  for  centuries  their  safe  and  enduring  home.  What  the  Church 
during  the  past  four  hundred  years,  and  especially  since  the  Reforma- 
tion, has  done  for  art  in  the  specific  sense, — for  sculpture  and  painting 
and  ]nusic  ; — what  the  Church  has  done  for  higher  learning,  for  classic 
scholarship,  for  literature  in  its  varieties,  for  poetry  and  eloquence  and 
history; — what  the  Church  has  done  for  philosophy  and  ethics,  for  law, 
for  medicine,  and  even  for  those  physical  sciences  whose  advocates  now 
so  often  repudiate  the  historic  relationship,  it  would  require  volumes 
adequately  to  describe.  If  from  these  multiplex  forms  of  higher  edu- 
cation, as  they  now  stand  forth  among  the  chief  glories  of  our  modern 
life,  all  that  the  Christian  Church  has  been  instrumental  in  contribut- 
ing, were  obliterated,  the  residuum  would  be  too  small  for  measure- 
ment: the  breadth,  the  sweetness,  the  dignity  of  our  culture  would  be 
almost  wholly  lost.  ^ 

It  constitutes  no  adequate  objection  to  this  position,  that  the  world 
has  seen  true  intellectual  life,  as  in  Greece,  where  neither  the  Church 
nor  Christianity  was  present  as  a  producing  force;  or  that  there 
have  been,  and  now  are,  intelligent  and  cultivated  minds  who  reject 
Christianity,  and  despise  the  Church.  Isor  is  it  an  adequate  objection, 
though  one  often  urged,  that  Christianity  as  a  system  of  truth  seems 
sometimes  to  fetter  the  mind  rather  than  to  expand  or  broaden  it ;  or 
further  that  the  Church  has  sometimes,  as  during  the  fifteenth  century, 
proven  rather  to  be  a  prison-house  in  which  free  thought  has  been  con- 
fined— ^a  prejudiced  and  tyrannical  court  where  the  intellect  has  been 
savagely  condemned  to  the  rack  and  the  stake.  These  must  be  con- 
fessed to  be  exceptional  or  abnormal  conditions  rather  than  a  general 

'  Brace,  C.  L.,Gcsta  Christl— Humane  Progress  under  Christianity. 


180  THE   CHURCH   IX   IIUMAX   SOCIETY. 

state.  jMay  it  not  be  that  the  culture  of  Greece  was  so  powerless  to 
affect  practical  life,  and  so  evanescent,  because  it  never  received  such 
added  scope  and  volume,  such  moral  stimulations,  as  the  Christian 
faith  and  the  Clnistian  Church  "would  have  supplied?  May  it  not  also 
be,  that  those  educated  minds  who  in  time  past  have  rejected,  or  who 
arc  now  rejecting  the  Church  and  the  Gospel,  owe  their  mental  devcl- 
oiiment,  their  scientific  bias  and  capability,  and  the  very  knowledge  in 
which  they  rest,  to  that  organized  Christianity  which  surrounds  them 
as  a  quickening  atmosphere  Avhithersoever  they  go  in  the  prosecution 
of  their  scientific  investigations?  Is  it  not  true,  furthermore,  tliat  the 
Chi-istiaii  faith  is  in  its  nature  stimulating  and  expanding  rather  than 
repressive ;  and  that  it  indicates  certain  boundaries  which  the  human 
mind  may  not  traverse,  only  because  the  laws  of  that  mind,  as  well 
as  the  nature  of  religion,  require  just  such  limitations?  And  cer- 
tainly it  is  not  a  departure  from  candid  reasoning  to  draw  a  line  be- 
tween Jesuitism  and  Christianity — to  claim  a  distinction  between  the 
Inquisition  and  the  Christian  Church,  and  to  protest  against  the  ar- 
raignment of  the  latter  for  the  stupidities,  the  malevolence,  the  cru- 
elties of  the  former.  If  fearful  mistakes,  horrid  crimes,  have  been 
committed  in  the  name  of  liberty,  mistakes  much  more  fearful,  crimes 
more  horrid  and  inexcusable  by  far,  have  been  wrought  by  wicked 
men  in  the  name  of  the  Omrch  and  of  religion. 

Nor  do  the  questions  now  under  discussion  in  the  realm  of  the  phys- 
ical sciences,  or  of  philosophy  or  sociology  or  ethics,  furnish  any  just 
ground  of  objection  to  this  asserted  relation  between  the  Church  of 
Christ  and  the  intellectual  life  of  Christendom.  The  apprehensions 
of  Christian  men  lest  the  facts  or  the  doctrines  of  Eevelatiou  should 
be  undermined  as  the  result  of  such  debate,  and  the  hopeful  boastings 
of  unbelief  in  view  of  some  apparent  antagonisms  between  these  facts 
and  doctrines  and  the  deductions  of  science,  are  alike  without  founda- 
tion. We  have  seen  such  antagonisms  too  often  disappearing  in  the 
light  of  broader,  deeper  unities;  we  have  too  often  witnessed  such 
assaults  coming  to  naught,  and  foiled  unbelief  confessing  its  failure. 
It  is  true  that  the  oppositions  between  Christianity  and  such  unbelief 
were  never  more  broad  or  vital  than  during  the  present  age ;  and  also 
that  unbelief,  like  ftiith,  exists  under  a  continuous  law  of  progress,  and 
may  therefore  be  expected  to  assume  darker,  deadlier  forms  in  coming 
ages,  even  to  the  end.  But  as  Christianity  has  withstood  all  past 
assault,  and  is  withstanding  triumphantly  all  present  assault,  so  we 
may  expect  it  to  triumph  more  and  more  gloriously,  from  age  to  age. 
And  the  Church,  as  the  representative  of  the  intellectual  influences 
incorporated  in  the  Christian  faith,  may  be  expected,  so  long  as  it 
remains  true  to  its  own  nature  and  its  beneficent  mission,  to  stand 


THE   CHURCH   AND   THE    MORAL  LIFE.  181 

forth  iu  liumau  society,  through  all  the  future  as  "the  superlative 
educational  force  of  the  world.  "^ 

XIII.  The  Church  and  Morality:  Church  and  Reforms. — 
These  ministries  of  Christianity  to  the  intellectual  life  in  man,  precious 
though  they  are,  become  incidental  when  compared  with  its  contribu- 
tions to  his  moral  life.  And  as  in  the  former  direction,  so  here  the 
Church,  next  to  the  Bible  itself,  is  the  ordained  seat  and  source  of 
these  moral  ministrations. 

The  question  whether  scriptural  is  superior  to  natural  morality,  may 
readily  be  answered.  The  argument  in  the  negative,  urged  by  English 
Deists  from  Herbert  and  Shaftesbury  to  Toland  and  Matthew  Tindal, 
though  conducted  with  great  skill,  has  signally  failed.  Not  only  has 
the  objection  to  the  morality  of  the  Bible,  based  on  certain  Old  Testa- 
ment facts  and  injunctions,  been  abundantly  met:  the  position  that 
nature  supplies  a  sufficient  basis  for  sound  morality,  and  that  the 
moral  precepts  of  Scripture  are  consequently  needless,  has  been  fully 
shown  to  be  invalid.  ^  While  it  is  true  that  natural  and  biblical  mor- 
ality are  essentially  one  and  the  same,  as  to  principle,  it  is  also  true 
that  the  latter  goes  far  beyond  the  former  in  the  extent  of  its  range, 
and  in  the  spiritual  thoroughness  of  its  applications.  While  natural 
morality  concerns  itself  chiefly  with  external  relations,  and  with  out- 
ward acts,  the  morality  of  the  Bible  deals  more  with  purposes,  feelings, 
and  even  the  transient  impulses  of  the  soul.  Especially  is  it  true  that 
the  latter  excels  in  the  type  and  measure  of  authority  with  which  its 
precepts  are  enforced.  When  the  calm  demands  of  reason,  the  plead- 
ings of  conscience,  the  discovered  relations  of  action  as  right  or  wrong, 
and  the  judgment  of  human  society,  and  the  will  of  God  as  seen  in 
nature,  have  all  been  invoked  to  enforce  the  claim  of  duty,  the  po- 
tency of  natural  morality  to  secure  obedience  is  wholly  exhausted. 
It  can  go  no  further  in  urging  its  own  right  to  rule  the  soul;  and  if 
the  will  be  not  affected  by  these  incentives,  it  can  do  nothing  but 
give  way  at  last  to  the  furious  impulses  of  passion,  or  to  the  fierce 
clamors  of  selfish  interest. 

But  scriptural  morality,  just  at  this  point,  brings  to  bear  upon  the 
soul  a  far  higher  range  of  incentives.     It  reveals  the  God  of  nature 

'Stores,  R.  S.,  Divine  Origin  of  Christianity,  Lect.  vir.  "Skeptics  themselves, 
with  whatever  learning,  eloquence  or  wit,  appear  to  me  but  involuntary  wit- 
nesses to  the  underlying  and  impenetrating  influence  of  this  religion,  which  has 
given  possibility  to  even  their  hostile  culture  and  force."  See  also  Shaikp, 
Culture  and  Religion;  Luthaedt,  Moral  Truths,  Lect.  ix. 

''Leland,  View  of  the  Principal  Deistical  Writers;  Farkae,  History  of  Free 
Thought;  Cairns,  Unbelief  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  Also,  on  the  deistic  side, 
Herbert,  De  Eeligione  GentiUum;  Shaftesbury,  Characteristics,  etc.;  Tindal, 
Chnstianity  as  old  as  the  Creation. 


182  Tin:  ciiuKCii  IX  human  society. 

iu  more  impressive  form,  as  the  moral  Governor  and  final  Judge  of 
all  mankind.  It  reveals  this  Divine  Being  in  (Christ,  as  a  perfect  ex- 
ample of  pure  ethical  living,  and  as  an  inspiring  stimulus  toward 
righteous  action.  It  reveals  the  same  Being  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  mak- 
ing the  luoral  law  manifest  in  the  heart,  si)iritualizing  its  every  pre- 
cept, and  at  the  same  time  encouraging  and  enabling  the  soul  to  obey. 
In  like  manner,  it  reveals  in  the  Gospel  a  vast  series  of  invitations, 
promises,  warnings,  hopes,  all  teaching  men  to  estimate  their  actions 
in  the  light  of  eternity — with  supreme  reference  to  the  ultimate  and 
everlasting  issues  of  their  conduct.  In  a  word,  the  morality  of  the 
Scri2:)ture  concentrates  around  the  ethical  life  of  man  the  entire  force 
of  the  Divine  Personality  and  of  the  Divine  Relations,  in  a  Avay  which 
is  wholly  impracticable  to  the  morality  of  nature ;  and  by  this  higher 
method  aims  to  make,  and  actually  does  make,  the  best  moralist  a 
better  man  by  making  him  a  Christian.  It  both  develops  more  ex- 
tensively the  ethical  capabilities,  and  works  out  a  far  higher  class  of 
results  in  the  practical  life.  A  completer  manhood,  with  broadened 
views  of  duty,  and  with  more  vigorous  and  effective  impulses  toward 
spiritual  obedience, — with  stricter  discipline  of  self,  with  a  loftier  type 
of  nature  and  life,  and  with  closer  affiliation  with  God  and  all  divine 
things,  must  be  the  certain  and  the  blessed  outcome. 

But  the  Christian  Church  is  by  its  very  nature  an  ordained  teacher 
of  biblical  morality,  and  within  its  appointed  sphere  it  is  the  most  ef- 
fective instrument  of  God  in  enthroning  such  morality  iu  the  heart 
and  in  the  life  of  mankind.  All  attempts  to  separate  the  ethical  ele- 
ment of  Scripture  from  its  scheme  of  grace — all  attempts  to  emphasize 
the  inculcation  of  doctrine,  or  submission  to  ceremonies,  or  the  exer- 
cise of  faith  in  Christ  as  an  atoning  Savior,  as  if  these  constituted  the 
whole  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  apart  from  the  faithful  and  loving 
observance  of  the  law  of  God  revealed  iu  His  AVord,  are  fraught  Avith 
error,  and  with  peril  to  the  soul.  It  is  indeed  the  function  of  the 
Church  to  proclaim  the  essential  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  invite 
all  men  to  believe  the  truth  which  God  has  spoken ;  it  is  its  function 
to  exalt  the  sacraments,  and  commend  to  men  the  Christian  ordinances 
and  the  appointed  means  of  grace ;  it  is  eminently  its  function  to  lift 
up  the  Cross,  and  to  magnify  the  atoning  love  thereon  exhibited,  and 
to  invite  a  Inirdened  and  sinful  world  to  the  great  Redeemer.  But  it 
is  no  less  the  function  of  the  Church  to  exalt  the  divine  law,  to  set 
forth  the  moral  precepts  of  the  Scripture,  to  press  the  claims  of  duty 
upon  the  conscience,  to  present  Christ  as  an  example  in  righteous  liv- 
ing, and  to  control  the  world  by  all  the  forces  inherent  in  true  biblical 
morality.  The  Church  is  as  truly  a  teacher  of  ethics  as  of  doctrine — 
as  truly  a  messenger  of  holiness  as  a  messenger  of  grace.     Love  and 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  REFORM.  183 

duty,  acceptance  and  obedience,  faith  and  righteousness,  are  the  kin- 
dred obligations  with  which  it  is  ever  to  deal. 

This  general  view  of  the  ministry  of  the  Church  to  the  moral  life 
of  humanity  brings  out  its  special  mission  with  respect  to  human  sin, 
and  to  the  specific  sins  of  any  given  man  or  period.  If  a  church 
which  contents  itself  with  announcing  doctrines,  offering  the  sacra- 
ments, or  holding  up  the  Cross  in  an  abstract  Avay,  is  insufficient  and 
culpable,  hardly  less  so  is  that  church  which  merely  enunciates  mo- 
rality in  general,  but  never  applies  moral  rules  to  the  actual  life  of 
the  world.  The  Church  of  any  age  inust  have  courage  enough  to  see 
and  deal  with  the  sins  of  that  age,  — to  hold  up  before  the  times,  with 
utmost  plainness  and  fidelity,  the  law  of  God  for  the  times.  What 
the  world  needs  to  know  is  the  claim  of  righteousness,  in  order  that  it 
may  the  better  heed  that  call  to  grace,  Avhich  is  in  essence  a  summons 
to  salvation  in  and  through  regenerate,  sanctified  character.  The 
blood  of  Christ  is  effectual  in  salvation  only  in  so  far  as  it  also  cleans- 
eth  from  all  sin ;  and  they  only  are  saved,  who  are  thus  rescued  from 
their  sins,  through  those  purifying  processes  which  the  gracious  moral- 
ity of  Scripture  undertakes.  Hence  the  peculiar  mission  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  to  the  moral  life ; — a  mission  which  is  not  to  be 
carried  out  by  the  right  living  of  the  private  member,  or  by  occasional 
proclamations  from  the  pulpit,  but  by  a  grand  movement  of  the 
Church  itself  as  a  sanctified  organization  along  the  loftiest  lines  of 
biblical  morality — a  holy  host  leading  the  world,  through  the  efficacies 
of  sacred  precept  and  holy  example  upward  steadfastly  toward  right 
and  godly  living.  It  can  hardly  be  questioned  that  such  was  the  vision 
of  His  Church  which  filled  the  mind  of  Christ,  as  He  saw  that  Church 
moving  onward  through  the  ages  toward  its  predestined  place  at  the 
head  of  humanity.  That  glimpses  of  such  a  comprehensive  ethical 
as  well  as  spiritual  mission,  lingered  as  a  holy  dream  in  the  mind  of 
Paul,  some  of  his  epistles  seem  distinctly  to  suggest.  The  consumma- 
tion of  our  humanity  of  which  the  apostle  dreams,  is  one  in  which 
morality  and  holiness,  duty  and  grace,  obedience  and  love,  are  indisso- 
lubly  blended. 

XIV.  The  Church  and  Civilization. — Such  in  brief  are  the 
specific  relations  of  the  Church  to  the  intellectual  and  to  the  moral 
nature  of  man  respectively.  It  now  remains  to  inquire  finally  respect- 
ing its  comprehensive  relation  and  ministry  to  our  aggregated  human 
life,  as  indicated  in  the  term,  civilization. 

Even  in  the  narrowest  sense  of  that  term,  as  including  the  inter- 
change of  graceful  civilities,  the  prevalence  of  social  order,  the  refine- 
ments of  education,  and  the  like,  it  remains  true  that,  in  the  phrase 
of  Burke,  these  results  have  flowed  in  upon  society  mainly  through  the 


184  THE   CHURCH  IN   HUMAN   SOCILTY. 

action  of  two  influences,  the  spirit  of  a  gcntlenmii  and  the  spirit  of 
religion.  In  the  full  sense  the  latter  term  embraces  the  former;  religion 
is  ever  the  source  and  fount  of  true  gentlemanliuess.  Guizot  defines 
civilization  more  broadly  as  the  progress  of  both  society  and  the  indi- 
vidual in  all  that  goes  to  constitute  comfort  and  elevation  in  human 
existence  ;  yet  Guizot  regards  the  spirit  of  religion,  or  Christianity,  as 
first  among  the  social  forces  through  whose  agency  such  progress 
comes.  In  the  broadest  sense,  civilization  may  be  described  as  the  sum 
total  of  human  development  in  any  given  age, — the  vast  aggregate  of 
those  material,  social,  political  and  religious  conditions  in  any  specified 
land  and  period,  on  which  this  progressive  maturing  of  individuals  and 
of  society  is  found  to  depend.  A  proper  comprehension  of  the  term 
must  include  not  merely  the  specific  state  of  things,  with  all  of  com- 
fort, blessing,  advance  included  in  it,  but  also  the  causes  of  which  that 
social  state  is  the  perceived  effect.  Nor  can  the  definition  be  restricted, 
after  the  manner  of  Buckle  and  his  school,  to  physical  or  material 
conditions,  or  even  to  mental  aptitudes,  or  political  organization,  or 
ethical  bias.  It  is  impossible  to  account  for  the  existence  of  any  high 
and  enduring  type  of  civilization,  without  admitting  the  presence  and 
influence  of  what  Burke  styles  the  spirit  of  religion,  and  eminently  in 
modern  life  of  the  presence  and  influence  of  the  Christian  religion. 
No  theory  of  civilization  can  be  truly  comprehensive  Avhich  does  not 
fitly  recognize  the  agency  of  this  supreme  factor, — which  does  not  find, 
back  of  and  beneath  all  other  influences,  the  truth  and  temper  of 
vital  Christianity,  and  the  effective  ministrations  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

The  ministry  of  the  Church  to  modern  civilization  may  be  said  to 
commence  "with  its  enforcement  of  the  doctrine  of  human  progress — 
the  capabilities  of  humanity  in  the  direction  of  progress,  and  the 
grounds  of  hope  that  such  progress  is  to  be  realized.  Against  the 
pessimism  of  Schopenhauer — against  the  dark  notion  that  the  career 
of  the  human  race  is  to  be  downward  rather  than  upward,  and  that 
the  final  issue  of  life  will  be  a  catastrophe  rather  than  a  consumma- 
tion, the  Church  of  God,  surviving  and  growing  with  the  centuries, 
and  steadily  becoming  more  and  more  beneficent  in  teaching  and  in- 
fluence, is  a  perpetual  and  a  convincing  protest.  In  like  manner, 
over  against  all  dreams  of  a  civilization,  perfected  through  soil  and 
climate,  through  machineries,  through  political  constitutions,  through 
education  and  art  and  culture  only,  the  Church  stands  as  a  steadfast 
witness, — lifting  up  the  sublime  antithesis  of  a  civilization  to  be  gained 
through  character,  character  regenerated  by  the  power  of  God,  and 
perfected  through  grace  and  fiiith  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  a  sound  propo- 
sition, that  the  progress  of  society  in  respect  to  merely  material  con- 


THE   CHURCH   AND   HUMAN   PEOGKESS.  185 

ditions  or  physical  comforts,  must  always  be  limited  by  its  equal 
progress  aloug  those  higher  ranges  of  experience  and  advantage  which 
the  term,  civilization,  most  centrally  represents.  It  is  a  proposition 
no  less  sound,  that  this  higher  social  progress  is  vitally  dependent  on 
the  progress  of  the  individuals  who  compose  such  society,  in  all  the 
elements  of  true  manhood,  and  eminently  in  those  elements  which  ap- 
pertain to  elevated,  sanctified  character.  But  Christianity  aims  to 
advance  society  by  just  this  inward  process  upon  individual  personality 
and  manhood ;  and  the  outward  and  general  advances  wdiich  the  civil- 
ized world  is  making,  are  found  historically  to  be  turning  more  and 
more  upon  the  success  of  the  Gospel  in  thus  renovating,  restoring 
human  character.  Christianity  is  thus  the  supreme  factor  in  all  true, 
enduring  civilization :  and  the  Church  as  its  representative  is,  there- 
fore, even  more  than  all  inventions,  all  industries,  all  education  and 
art  and  civil  policy,  the  great  civilizer  of  men.  In  a  Avord,  the  pro- 
gress which  the  world  most  needs,  is  progress  which  Christianity,  which 
the  Church,  alone  supplies. 

More  specifically,  it  is  one  of  the  functions  of  the  Christian  Church 
to  correct  the  strong  tendencies  of  civilization  itself  toward  wrong  or 
false  developments, — to  protest,  for  example,  against  the  materialism 
Avhich,  in  the  midst  of  specious  api^earances  of  advance,  is  surely  lead- 
ing humanity  down  to  lower  experiences,  and  ultimately  to  a  barbaric 
condition, — to  strive  against  the  illusive  sway  of  a  merely  intellectual 
or  esthetic  theory  of  progress,  since  education  without  morality  and 
culture  without  religion,  as  modern  history  abundantly  shows,  can  give 
no  guarantee  of  healthful  and  permanent  advance,  against  the  deteri- 
oration and  corruptions  of  universal  sin.  The  Church  is  rather  stead- 
fastly to  turn  the  eyes  of  men  toward  the  true  secret  of  advance,  and 
to  exhort  humanity  to  make  progress  first  of  all  and  above  all  by 
becoming  holy.  It  is  also  the  blessed  function  of  the  Church,  to  asso- 
ciate the  idea  of  civilization  with  righteousness,  with  benevolence,  with 
the  sense  of  brotherhood,  with  the  consciousness  of  the  supreme  account- 
ability of  both  men  and  society  to  God, — thus  suffusing  and  dignifying 
all  movements  in  the  interest  of  civilization,  witli  Christian  graces  and 
Christian  virtues.  It  is  also  one  of  its  functions  to  supply  right  incen- 
tives, adequate  inspirations,  in  the  direction  of  social  advancement. 
The  ordinary  impulses  that  move  men  on  in  such  civilizing  processes 
often  prove  inadequate.  Selfishness,  seeking  merely  the  advantage  of 
the  individual,  is  not  a  motive  on  which  society  can  permanently  rely 
as  a  force  to  raise  it,  age  after  age,  into  better  conditions.  Nor  wull  the 
sense  of  need,  the  craving  of  awakened  desires,  the  demands  of  taste, 
prove  any  more  reliable :  these  may  engender  spontaneous  and  strong 
movements  for  a  time,  but  when  the  day  tf  gratification  comes,  the 


186  THE  CHURCH  in  human  society. 

impulse  dies  away,  and  lethar<;y  and  decadence  surely  follow.  Neither 
can  mankind  rely  on  the  incentives  of  l)enev()l('nee,  the  impulses  of 
patriotism  or  of  phiUinthroi)y,  however  true  or  pure,  to  sustain  endur- 
ingly  the  civilization  of  the  world :  such  forces  have  too  often  revealed 
their  inadequacy  in  the  i)resence  of  the  clamors  of  interest,  the  seduc- 
tions of  passion,  the  downward  <lrift  of  luinian  nature.  It  is  Chris- 
tianity alone  which  can  sujjply  the  incentives  essential  to  sound  ad- 
vance :  it  is  the  Christian  Church  alone  which  preserves  in  the  heart 
of  humanity  those  finer,  those  divine  insj)iralions  which  alone  can 
either  enahle  man  to  appreciate  true  progress,  or  (jualify  him  to  strive 
after  and  to  gain  it.  ^ 

The  position  of  the  Church  with  reference  to  current  social  ques- 
tions and  issues,  is  therefore  one  of  vital  interest.  No  graver  mistake 
can  be  made  than  that  of  supposing  that  the  Church  is  to  stand  aloof 
from  such  practical  concerns,  and  to  content  itself  with  the  positive 
proclamation  of  the  Gospel.  For  the  Gospel  itself  is  a  fire  in  the 
earth ;  and  there  is  no  living  interest  of  humanity  which  that  Gospel 
is  not  designed  to  reach  and  benefit.  No  true  reform,  as  we  have  seen, 
can  be  carried  forward  successfully  on  other  than  Christian  principles ; 
and  the  Church  of  God  owes  it  both  to  the  Master  whom  it  rei)resents 
and  to  the  humanity  whom  it  is  sent  to  save,  to  be  in  the  very  center 
of  all  wise  and  pure  reform — its  regulator  and  its  inspiration.  In  like 
manner,  all  movements  in  the  direction  of  charity — all  institutions  for 
the  benefit  of  suffering  classes,  and  all  efforts  to  sujoply  special  need  in 
any  part  of  the  Avorld,  may  justly  claim  the  support  of  the  Church. 
Most  of  these  institutions  and  efforts  are  indeed  the  off*spriug  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  their  presence  in  Christianized  rather  than  heathen  lands  is 
proof  of  their  origin.  And  one  of  the  most  convincing  evidences  of 
its  divine  quality  which  the  Church  can  supply,  will  be  found  in  its 
steadfast  maintenance  of  every  agency,  every  movement,  which  has 
the  temper  of  humanity  as  its  indwelling  impulse.  Nor  can  the  Church 
be  indifferent  to  any  of  those  numerous  questions  respecting  the  rights 
of  property,  the  claims  of  labor  and  capital,  the  needs  and  demands 
of  the  laboring  classes,  the  distribution  of  political  power,  the  organi- 
zation of  society  in  the  interest  of  the  poor  rather  than  the  rich, 
which  lie  at  the  basis  of  so  much  political  and  social  agitation  in  this 
age.  For,  is  it  not  already  apparent  that  no  proposition  of  capitalists 
or  laborers  as  classes,   no  merely  political  scheme  of  adjustment,  no 

'  "Religion  controls  the  forces  which  mould  and  refine  the  soul  and  society. 
It  is  the  main-spring  or  the  governing  wheel  which  gives  motion,  and  it  also 
regulates  and  harmonizes  all  movements.  »  ••■•  Its  glory  lies  in  making  all 
things  new,  not  without  other  agencies,  but  through  its  control  over  them,  and 
through  its  sway  over  the  individual  soul."  Woolsey,  Rdujion  of  the  Future, 
p.  397-400.  • 


THE   CHURCH    AND  THE  CONSUMMATION.  187 

philanthropic  plan  of  amelioration,  can  really  solve  the  grave  problems 
here  suggested?  And  is  it  not  the  growing  conviction  that  no  voice 
but  the  voice  of  Christ,  uttered  through  His  Church,  can  speak  the 
word  which  will  calm  these  social  agitations,  and  give  to  society  ade- 
quate guarantee  of  a  civilization  in  which  the  rights  of  all  and  the  in- 
terests of  all  shall  be  harmoniously  blended  in  one  ? 

It  is  thus  the  peculiar  privilege  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  take  the 
great  interests  of  humanity,  of  the  world,  on  its  heart,  and  to  apply 
the  Gospel  whose  messenger  it  is,  to  every  human  need,  in  order  to 
the  ultimate  production  of  a  truly  Christian  civilization.  Not  only  is 
the  Church  to  solve  the  spiritual  problems  of  human  life ;  it  is  to  min- 
ister, as  an  angel  of  mercy,  to  that  life  in  even  its  lowest  forms  of 
need,  and  by  the  power  of  love  to  lift  it  out  of  every  degradation, 
every  deformity,  every  antagonism,  into  the  strength,  beauty,  peace, 
which  spiritual  Christianity  imparts.  The  Bible  is  the  Book  of  the 
Future — the  future  of  earth  as  well  as  the  future  of  heaven  ;  and  the 
Church  of  the  Bible,  one  in  spirit  and  beautified  by  grace,  has  the 
future  of  the  earth,  the  future  of  mankind,  in  its  hands.  The  Bible 
reveals,  and  the  Church  believes  in,  a  glorious  consummation  for  hu- 
manity, and  for  the  earth — a  consummation  to  be  secured  through  the 
Gospel.  No  other  forces  than  truth  and  love,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
are  requisite  to  that  consummation :  no  other  agent  than  the  Church 
is  needful  to  bring  it  to  pass.  And  as  the  Church  grows  inwardly  in 
character,  and  is  multiplied  outwardly  from  continent  to  continent, 
civilization  will  surely  follow,  in  grander  and  still  grander  forms,  until 
in  the  completed  development  of  the  Church,  humanity  shall  reach 
its  glorious  maturity.  Then  will  come  to  pass  the  ancient  prophecy, 
that  the  Mountain  of  the  Lord  shall  be  established  in  the  top  of  the 
mountains,  and  it  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills ;  and  all  nations 

SHALL   FLOW  UNTO   IT. 


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PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

oloqiol   Sfminary-Spcff   Lit 


1    1012  01011    6046 


